America - Celebrate Spring

As we sit here in the grip of yet another cold front, it may be hard to realize that Spring is almost here. But, already, here in Georgia, I can see the buds on the kudzu vines starting to  open. The fescue is slowly changing from its lovely winter brown to a pale green and the pine trees are dropping copious amounts of pollen, much to the horror of my sinuses.

Allergies aside, I love Spring. As trite as it may be to say, it is a time of rebirth, of renewal, and after a Winter of terrorism and El Nino rains, of Polar Vortexes and relentless Election campaigning, we are all in need of renewal.

The Spring holidays are seldom given a lot of thought these days. In times not that far in the past, Spring celebrations were great fun. Even in school, teachers goofed on their pupils on April Fools Day and everyone was Irish on St; Patrick's Day. Yes, I know, on St; Patrick's Day bars serve green beer (yuck) and here and their Moms cook corned beef and cabbage, but there was a time when the day was a big deal for all. It is a silly holiday, meaningless really, but that was the point. Most every little town had a parade and school cafeterias served green iced cake and everyone just had fun. Having meaningless silly fun is a much underrated way to spend some time; it's good for the soul.

I am not Jewish, so maybe I am wrong, but, according to many of my Jewish friends, Passover is now just a time to have a good dinner and a nice get together. When I was younger, most Jewosh families I knew viewed the day with at least some reverence as a cultural tradition and may were still very devout. Now, maybe that has faded a bit, but when you get right down to it, just getting together for the meal and company is a very spiritual event in its own right.

Easter, like Passover, is still of deep religious significance to some, but fewer and fewer as time goes by. Among Christians I know, many attend church on such holidays as more of a social event than a spiritual one, and that's fine. Social and spiritual are very related. Many who have fallen away from any specific religiuos tradition, the ever increasing category who call themselves Spiritual But Not Religious, celebrate Easter as a family tradition or as a kind of celebration of Spring. Again, that is just fine. Many Easter traditions, such as the great feast and Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are taken from old pagan traditions. The important thing is taking time to mark the passage into Spring and allow such a celebration to aid you in your renewal as you pass from Winter's doldrums.

In the old days, when I was in shool, we even celebrated the transition from Spring to Summer with a May Day festival. Games were played, a somewhat special lunch was served in the cafeteria and we danced around a May Pole weaving brightly colored ribbons as we danced. This was stopped when an early version of the politically correct thought police realized that May Day was a political holiday in the old Soviet Union and put a stop to the frivolity.               

The point of all this? Nothing, really, nothing serious or deep anyway. In fact my only point is that we would be well served to remember and celebrate the transition to Spring, to do silly things, eat special foods and enjoy good company, for in these actions, especially when set among the profusion of the grand colors of Nature in fine mild weather, we become renewed and if you are at all like me, you are in need of that.