The sun burst through the clouds at the exact moment of the spring equinox, flooding Copley Square with a warmth absent so long that it almost seemed exotic.
Lunchtime walkers wore sunglasses. Two sprouts broke through the hard mud in a flower bed. A football took flight as part of an impromptu game that had two teams scurrying across brown grass.
Eliza Dermendjian worked the grill on her Chicken Kabob pushcart, the tangy smoke curling down the sidewalk and enticing passersby to celebrate their first al fresco lunch of the season.
“This is a sign of spring,” said Justin Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old property manager from Waltham who had thought about this chicken kabob on dark January afternoons. “This has been a brutal winter.”
Cinzia Coppola waited for her lunch in short sleeves as she clutched an iced coffee — two acts of defiance to prove she had not been broken by the cold. Coppola, 25, ordered a chicken salad with the creamy Greek dressing that made it something special.
“I’ve been waiting all winter,” Coppola said.
Wrapped in a purple Tibetan scarf, Michelle Nguyen squinted in the sunlight.
She ordered chicken and rice, determined to eat outside.
But as the therapist from New York took her lunch, the sun disappeared behind a cloud. A cold wind cut across the square. Nguyen, 37, drew her scarf tight.
“It’s been keeping me warm all winter,” she said. “But I’m ready to store it in the closet.”