While cool temperatures in the northeast of the US belie the Spring season, the promise of warmer days is seen in the crocuses and daffodils buds here in the Northern Hemisphere. Join me in welcoming in the vernal equinox by exploring thirteen images of Spring celebrations across the globe.
White House Easter Egg Roll
Image via wiki
I find delight in watching the US commander in chief chasing after boiled eggs (though some of them are wood!) on the lawn of the White House. The hilarity can be witnessed annually during the the White House Easter Egg Roll, where children “race” eggs to the finish line, propelling the boiled ovums forward.
Persian New Year
Image by Ken Nyetta via Flickr
NowRuz (a.k.a. the Persian New Year) begins on the first day of spring. The ancient Persian holiday is celebrated across the world, marking the beginning of spring. Festivities carry a message of peace, brotherhood, and renewal! Now that’s what I call a solid New Year’s resolution!
Songkran Festival In Thailand
Image by Xai via Flickr
Sodden revelers participate in the Thai New Years Songkran Festival - an event dedicated to water. Festival goers soak one another with water guns and buckets. During the hot Thai April months, the watery celebration is a welcome respite to residents looking to get drenched.
Shunbun no Hi
Image by Nullumayulife via Flickr
The Vernal Equinox Day (or Shunbun no Hi in Japanese) is a public holiday in Japan. The day is reserved to appreciate nature and living creatures - always admirable to honor sentient and non-sentient beings alike! The spring equinox is of special importance to Japanese Buddhist families, who worship their ancestors and pay respect at family graves.
Passover
Image via Wiki
Passover, my favorite Jewish holiday (VERY TASTY FOOD!), is a commemoration of the Jews liberation by God from slavery in Egypt, and coincides with the Spring Equinox. In this widely observed Jewish holiday, traditional food is prepared for the seder (a community gathering), which includes a roasted bone, horseradish, charoset, parsley, egg, wine, and an orange. Seriously, it’s always tasty.
Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling
Image via Wiki
In one of the weirder celebrations of the spring months, people take a pilgrimage across the globe to Gloucester, England to participant in the annual Cooper Hill Cheese Rolling competition. Stemming from pagan times, the tradition continues in modern times with competitors rolling down a steep hill after a 9 lb round of Double Gloucester cheese. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese!
Maypole
Image via Wiki
Maypoles, erected to celebrate the first of May, stems from European folk festivals where people dance around the poles. Festooned in floral garlands and brightly colored ribbons, maypoles continue to be a staple of spring celebrations, and have been appropriated into Renaissance festivals (those events where people dress up like it’s the middle ages-come on, you know you’ve been to at least one).
Shakrain Festival in Bangladesh
Image by Masudananda via Flickr
The Shakrain Festiva in Bangladesh is an annual celebration of spring, observed with the flying of kites. Widely celebrated around the capital of Dhaka, the festival involves flying kites from the roof of homes - in a practice known as kite fighting (for those who have read the novel The Kite Runner, you may remember the concept of kite fighting!).
Holi
Image via Wiki
Holi, the famous celebration that has been appropriated across the world, is a festival of spring. The celebration involves throwing brightly hued chalk, and frolicing amongst the beautiful colors in open streets. For more info on Holi, read my colleague Alex’s article on the festival!
Ukrainian May Day
Image via Wiki
Children celebrate May Day by dancing with garlands. The May 1st celebration had been historically linked to the fight for worker solidarity - and has been widely celebrated by various groups of laborers paying tribute to the memory of victims of oppression. Today, much of that history is lost as May Day was become more a celebration of Spring’s awakening and the earth’s rebirth post-winter!
Prospect Park Carousel
Image by Carmen via Flickr
Come Spring, and the Prospect Park Carousel in Brooklyn, New York, jiggles out of it’s winter hibernation. The spectacular merry-go-round draws New York natives and global citizens alike. Riders have the choice of picking between traditional wooden horses to ride as well as lions and zebras! It may not be a major holiday, but New Yorkers look for any reason to celebrate spring post our long winter months.
Spring equinox in Teotihuacán
Image via Wiki
The spring equinox in Teotihuacán is an annual event that mirrors celebrations in pre-Hispanic colonization of Mexico. Visitors revel in the return of spring by visiting the ancient site, many dressed all in white. Individuals climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun where rituals are performed. You can see many people with outstretched arms to receive the special energy the day is believe to bring!
Despite the wet, gloomy fog in New York, I am still taking heart that warm weather is around the corner. I have already eaten my fair share of Easter candy, and look forward to a friend’s Passover seder. It’s time to come out of your winter jackets for all of you living in the cold regions of the Northern hemisphere! The tulips are coming out of their winter slumber, and so should you!
What spring traditions have I missed on this list? Share them in the comments with the rest of your fellow Global Citizens!