Google welcomes the spring and fall equinox with new Doodles

March 20 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in the Southern Hemisphere with new Doodles.

For users living north of the equator, Google's homepage displays an animated short featuring a new character named Quinn who is playing a musical tune in order to awaken a mysterious creature from within a colorful batch of flowers.

For users living south of the equator, Google's homepage features a different animated short with Quinn as the character walks along a tree branch and follows a leaf fall down into a patch of brown and yellow leaves that are covering up the mysterious creature.

"The earth has seasons because the planet is tilted on its axis, which results in each hemisphere receiving more direct light at opposite times of the year. But on the equinox, the earth's axis is perpendicular to the sun. In other words, people all over the world experience a day and night of equal length -- almost exactly 12 hours," Google says of how almost everywhere in the world on March 20 will experience nighttime and daytime lasting 12 hours.