WHY DOES FALL BEGIN ON THE 23rd, NOT THE 21st AS OTHER SEASONS?

In elementary school, we learn the seasons of the year begin on the 21st of the months of - March (Spring), June (Summer), September (Fall), and December (Winter). Later, in high school maybe, we learn of meteorological seasons - starting on the 1st of those months above-mentioned. Yet, the seasons do not always start on the 21st - two of them do anyway, Summer and Winter. Spring seems to start a day earlier - March 20th, and Fall two days beyond the 21st, or the 23rd of September, as happened this year 2007. Why is this? Does it not seem that the Spring/Summer half of our total year's time is a bit longer than the Fall/Winter half? It's not only the September 23rd date, but February only having 28 days as well; it seems to shrink the Fall/Winter time. I have my own theory, and I could just explain it right away, but I want to do it in a round-about way, in order that the shorter and faster way will then be more obvious to you, you more easily understanding it. We're going to go beyond Earth, to the planets of Venus, Mars and even Pluto (which was a planet not too long ago). All will involve orbits, and their relationship to the Sun. Then we will come back to Earth and apply what we've learned re the other planets.

Let us imagine a bicycle wheel - a perfect circle with a center hub. The wheel is the shape of a planet's orbit, the hub the Sun. Venus is pretty much represented on the bicycle wheel as always being 67,000,000 miles from the sun - having a very circular orbit with the Sun always right in the middle - a near perfect specimen planet, those ways anyway. Mars, on the other hand, is not - not at all, and having extreme distances from the Sun, rather close on one side, rather far on the other side, and varying distances in between. So, the hub as far as Mars' wheel is concerned, is not in the center, and you would easily notice it. Imagine trying to ride a bike that way! You'd go up and down, bump along. Before I go on here, I want to clarify something. Many believe Mars' orbit is oval, like an oval picture frame. If this were true, two sides of Mars' orbit would close in, be closest to the Sun, the other two farther out, one of those not as much so. So it is not true, that Mars has an oval orbit; it's fairly circular actually; just that the Sun is far from being in the center. Why this is, I'm not sure, but I have my theories: It can't be just the Sun's gravity, perhaps that

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