Ways The World Celebrates Spring

If you feel like jumping for joy when you see the first signs of Spring imagine how other cultures celebrate the amazing changes one vernal equinox can bring!
Bangladesh people enjoy newly reaped paddies. Australians gather for thoroughbred horse racing events.  The main event is known as the race that stops a nation.
Even Bermudians, who enjoy moderate temperatures year round, only take their first official swim on Queen Victoria's birthday every spring.
The main Jewish holiday Passover is also known as The Spring Holiday.  There are even 3 more significant Jewish national holidays celebrated during the Spring.
In India the colors come out, literally. Holi, the festival of colors features people throwing water and apply colored powders on one another.
An old Romanian tradition has a symbolic red and white string from which a small decoration is tied and offered by people on the first day of March.  It is interesting that this same symbol is of women and fertility as a means of giving life and continuity.
The main symbol of new life for one of the major religions, Christianity, is the Easter season. Celebrating the new life symbolized in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Even more secular traditions have evolved around this main theme with the introduction of Easter Eggs symbolizing new life to come.
The other intriguing ways local culture know when Spring comes is not just a calendar observation.   In Sweden, for instance meteorologists define spring when the temperature is above zero Celsius (above freezing) for 7 consecutive days.  This means that the first day of spring in that country can vary by elevation and location!
With some cultures astronomy and the vernal equinox can get creative around the calendar. For instance, in China, the use the end of winter as Feb. 4th.  They then calculate the midpoint between then and May 5th as the spring equinox as its midpoint.
Whatever your culture is there's no doubt people everywhere the seasons of hope and optimism that is celebrated.   Just be sure you know the other people you are celebrating know what day to celebrate!

For more on the wacky ways the world celebrates Spring check out this primary source for this blog.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Humans

Image
A lot of people know how popular video continues to be in helping small business owners communicate with their audience. People on their smart phones alone are a large and growing audience. Businesses know that more people think more highly of them and buy more from them using video than any other platform. But how you do your video is often very confusing for busy business owners. Most successful sales people know that most prospects  buy on emotion and use logic to rationalize their decision.  So how could you use video to create more of an emotional connection with  interested viewers? Turns out that with all the focus on technology, pixels and camera specs the most important thing is to create a more human connection.  One powerful way to do that is through the use of spokespersons. The premise of a spokesperson is actually quite simple.  It's basically a real live person talking about your business.  Sure, the owner of the business ca...
Read more

William Maclay Mansion -Home of The First President's Loudest Critic

Image
The founding fathers  checks and balance philosophy of our new nation took on its full force during the first term of Senator William Maclay.  He took on none other than President George Washington in what he saw was the ever expanding power of the Executive Branch. Before he became one of the first class of new senators in the initial two year term in our new nation, Senator Maclay was a soldier, lawyer,  surveyor, state legislator and judge. Senator Maclay was a fervent supporter of the constitution in 1787.  But it is he along with Senator James Madison that were among the first to speak loudly against the actions of the new national government. He was convicted that President Washington was unconstitutionally taking the powers of the executive branch too far beyond the powers of the states. Besides the records of Senatorial debates Maclay also was devoted to his own private congressional journal.  This is invaluable for historians to gain insight on...
Read more

Decoration Day

Image
Long before Memorial Day turned into parades and picnics to kick off the summer season there was a much more solemn origin. Imagine a war where nearly every family in the nation had a son, father or husband who served or knew someone who lost a loved one. The Civil War counted 625,000 men who died.  That's more casualties than both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam combined.  Put another way that was 2% of the population which would be about 6 million if such a devastating conflict was fought today with the current population. Putting the loss for both sides in perspective it's easy to understand why families were looking for ways to remember, heal and honor the dead. By the late 1860's many towns and cities began to hold spring time ceremonies.  They would gather to honor those who gave their lives and would decorate their graves with fresh flowers.  Prayers were often given. It wasn't until 1966 that the federal government highlighted Waterloo (ironic na...
Read more