As soon as you are done reading this, DCist wants you to stand up and walk directly outside. No, no arguing. No, we do not care that you have a pressing deadline for COB today. We are ordering you to go outside for a quick break to drink in the final minutes of summer, because at 5:14 p.m. today summer will turn to fall and you will have to wait until June before a summer breeze can make you feel fine again.

Today is the autumnal equinox. Astronomically, an equinox, meaning “equal night,” occurs twice a year when the length of day is exactly the same as the length of night (12 hours). Wikipedia describes an equinox as “the moment when the sun reaches one of two intersections between the ecliptic and the celestial equator.” To our eyes, the autumnal equinox marks the point in the year when the sun begins to sit lower toward the south during its daily traverse of the sky.

Astrologically, today’s equinox ushers in the air sign Libra.