Spring Into a New Beginning

Last updated on August 11th, 2023 at 07:21 pm

The weather is significantly getting warmer, the snow is slowly melting, and buds are emerging! These all indicate that the season is changing, and Spring is finally upon us. Additionally, the season between winter and summer is not universal and varies depending on the specific geographical location where it occurs. Typically, the transition from Winter to Spring is when the earth revives and reinvigorates after the colder winter months, making dormant plants regrow, sprouts come out of the ground, and hibernating animals awaken. So, let's dive into how Spring Traditions started.

The History Of Spring

The Spring season obtained its name from the verb “spring” and from the word “springan,” which means “to leap, burst forth, fly up; spread, grow.” It is indeed a nod to the flowers and plants springing up, opening, and bursting into blossom. 

The word came to describe the Spring season in the 14th century, indicating the time when plants rose from their winter dormancy and bloomed. Before that, the word, Lent, was used to describe the season. Lent surfaced as ‘lencten,' that is, ‘lengthen‘: the season got its name because, in the Spring, days lengthen. 

Spring And A New Beginning

The presence of tree buds is usually one of the first signs of Spring. These buds remain closed and dormant throughout winter, surviving the cold until their time to thrive in the Spring and making a vibrant emergence from their compact casing. Moreover, a plant's buds act as a shield for the delicate flowers inside. Flowers of different shapes, sizes, and forms also come with individual and distinct protection. This visual guide to the more common tree buds should particularly help you identify them.

Spring indeed symbolizes new beginnings, with the first buds emerging from the ground. 

This is when flowers bloom for the first time in months, and animals awaken from winter-induced hibernation. The sun shines again, ending the darkness of the Winter months. The earth comes to life once again.

Spring obviously symbolizes life in all its glory. The onset of Spring Traditions was historically entwined with religion, the mystical, and also the spiritual. The essence of positivity is celebrated during Spring, symbolizing rebirth, renewal, resurrection, and regrowth.

Spring Traditions Around The World

Spring is not just a simple change of season but is celebrated worldwide. Every country has its unique way of Spring Traditions for welcoming the new season such as festivals, parades, or communal meals.

Here are a few celebrations and traditions of Spring around the world:

1. White House Easter Egg Roll – USA

This yearly event has taken place every Easter Monday since 1814. In this fun tradition, children gather on the White House lawn in Washington D.C. to roll eggs across the grass with wooden spoons, basically competing to see who can cross the finish line first. Kids can win Easter eggs and small prizes, so, with the promise of sweet treats fresh in their minds, morale is usually sky-high. 

2. Floriade – Australia

This is one of the Spring Traditions events also started in 1988 when parks manager Peter Sutton and landscape designer, Chris Slotemaker De Bruine, conceptualized a proposal for a grand floral display in celebration of Australia's bicentenary and Canberra's 75th birthday. The result was a beautiful, exotic floral display that was so wholeheartedly embraced by the local community that it became an annual celebration of Spring. Hundreds of thousands of people each year travel from neighboring Sydney and Brisbane to witness more than a million flowers bloom in this month-long color, music, and horticulture festival.

3. Nowruz – Central Asia

Nowruz is also celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Iranian calendar and coincides with the Spring equinox (usually around March 21st). It symbolizes new life, new beginnings, and the rebirth of nature. This celebration differs from country to country, but it often starts with cleaning the homes. It then escalates into a multi-day festival of bonfires, costumes, and family remembrance. On the 13th day of the New Year, everybody leaves their homes for the purpose of joining friends and family outside for music, dancing, and food in the cities' public spaces. Some also do exercises to warm up for spring. 

4. Songkran Water Festival – Thailand

Songkran stems from the Sanskrit word for “astrological passage” and is celebrated in Thailand as New Year's Day. This annual festival takes place shortly after the Spring equinox. The celebration involves going to a Buddhist monastery, visiting elders, and throwing water. Moreover, the northern capital of Chiang Mai is where the most significant celebrations occur, with festivities lasting up to six days. Locals and tourists alike also take to the streets, equipped with cannon-sized water guns, pressure hoses, and buckets, ready to drench anyone in their path. People of all ages danced in the streets to loud music.

5. Holi – Northern India

This festival celebrated across Northern India is one of the most colorful festivals in the world. Paying tribute to the many hues of the Spring season, the celebration involves throwing colored powder at one another. Usually lasting a full day and night, the festival is a gloriously colorful and happy celebration of the end of winter and the beginning of the Spring growing season.

6. Tulip Festival – Canada

The Canadian Tulip Festival is held in the country's capital city of Ottawa. It originated as a 10-day celebration with the Dutch royal family providing 100,000 bulbs to Ottawa in 1945. This was a gesture of gratitude for keeping their princess and her daughters safe during the war and the role Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands. Since then, the Netherlands has kept the tradition alive by sending 20,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa each year. That gift is known as the ‘Tulip Legacy,' Those tulips have now accumulated to more than one million. The Canadian Tulip Festival has celebrated this Spring flower, an international symbol of friendship and peace, since 1953.

7. Wildflower Bloom – California, USA

One of the most beautiful Spring events around the world is the widely anticipated Wildflower Bloom event in California. Eventually in a good bloom year, wildflowers in multiple colors carpet landscapes across the state, from the floor of the desert in Southern California to the hills of the Sierra Nevada. This starts in late February and persists into the early summer. Whereas poppies, daisies, Indian paintbrushes, and lupines can be commonly seen. One of the best places to view wildflower bloom in California is Carrizo Plain National Monument, on the central plains

Spring Foods

Aside from these festivals and celebrations, Spring is the best time to indulge in local fruits and vegetables. Some best foods to eat in Spring include:

Apricots	Cardoons	Garlic Scapes/ Green Garlic	Morels	Ramps
Artichokes	Cherries	Kale	Nettles	Rhubarb
Arugula	Dandelion Greens	Kiwi	New Potatoes	Spinach
Asparagus	Fava Beans	Leeks	Parsley	Spring Onions
Beets	Fennel	Lemon	Pea Greens	Strawberries
Carrots	Fiddleheads	Lettuce	Radish	Turnips

You can create healthy and delicious vegetarian meals using these tasty recipes! Check out our Master Guide to Vegetarianism; that are incredibly easy to prepare, so go and get it now!