As the autumnal equinox approached, the townspeople became nervous. Why?

There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. T he word equinox is derived from two Latin words equal and Nox. At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on these two equinoxes.