Ways to Celebrate the Coming of Spring This Year
Cultures around the world celebrate the coming of spring in different ways. This year, welcome spring with your variation of one of these traditional spring festivals from around the world.
Songkran, Thailand
Every year on April 13 to 15, Thailand celebrates Songkran, one of Thailand’s biggest water festivals and national holidays, to mark the Thai new year and welcome the spring. Even thousands of tourists travel to celebrate it with the natives. The word Songkran translates into “astrological passage,” or “transformation.” The festival involves Thai people visiting temples to may homage to Buddha and splashing water on their elders, family, friends and neighbors as a way of looking for good fortune.
If you can’t find the time or money to fly to Thailand, have your own little Songkran festival. Invites friends, family and neighbors to your house or to a park and have a giant water fight!
Holi, India
The Indian celebration of Holi, or Festival of Colors, commemorates the victory of good over evil through the burning of demoness Holika, which was made possible through the help of Hindu god of preservation, Lord Vishnu. In some parts of India, Holi is also celebrated as a spring festival to give thanks for an abundant harvest season.
On the first day of spring, participants joyously throw water and then colored powder on each other, relating to Lord Krishna, a reincarnation of Lod Vishnu, who enjoyed pranking the village girls by drenching them with water and colors.
This would be a fun celebration with young kids, but instead of throwing colorful powder, host a face painting party!
Tulip Time, USA
In the small town of Holland, Michigan, one of the largest tulip festivals is held every spring in late April or early May. Over six million tulips are planted which draws in one million visitors every year. The tradition began in 1929 when the City of Holland planted 100,000 tulips and an overwhelming number of visitors visited every year, eventually turning it into a spring festival. The festival now features Dutch dancing, a Dutch marketplace, carnival rides, parades, fireworks and, of course, tulips.
Why not honor the tulip tradition and plant your own tulips in your backyard? If you don’t have a yard, you can grow tulips in water. Read how. https://www.wikihow.com/Force-Tulip-Bulbs-in-Water
Cimburijada, Bosnia
If a water fight, face painting and tulip planting sound difficult to pull off, here’s a super easy way to celebrate the spring.
In Zenica, Bosnia, the townspeople celebrate the coming of spring with a giant breakfast called Cimburijada, which is literally the Festival of Scrambled Eggs. Every year, the people of Bosnia gather by the Bosna River and cook a giant pot of scrambled eggs for friends and family, or the entire town, which is the traditional way of celebrating spring.
Celebrate Cimburijada with your family in your own home. Cook a giant pot of scrambled eggs on the morning of spring and enjoy quality time with your family.