“What’s particularly beautiful about spring is how differently it’s celebrated around the world”. Every country has its own unique way of welcoming the new season, be it through a festival, parade, or communal meal.
Curious as to how exactly these festivities go down? Dive into all things spring and learn about some of our favorite spring traditions from around the world.
This annual festival takes place shortly after the spring equinox. Songkran stems from the Sanskrit word for “astrological passage” and is celebrated within Thailand as New Year’s Day. Festivities involve going to a Buddhist monastery, visiting elders, and, of course, throwing water. Locals and tourists alike take to the streets, equipped with cannon-sized water guns, pressure hoses and buckets, ready to drench anyone in their path.
Undoubtedly one of the most colorful festivals in the world – Holi is celebrated by Hindus across Northern India. It involves throwing colored powder at one another, which pays tribute to the many hues of the spring season as well as events from Hindu mythology.
Located just an hour by car from Bristol, the innocuous-sounding event is, in fact, a lot more dangerous than the name would lead you to believe. A wheel of cheese is thrown down the very steep hill and one second later competitors throw themselves down after it. The first one to cross the finish line wins. Bruises, bloodied knees, and broken bones aren’t uncommon side-effects of this intense tradition. A slightly rougher way to welcome spring, but the 200-year-old tradition is proudly upheld by the community, attracting both old and new competitors every year.
Each year, thousands of people, traditionally dressed in white, gather at the enormous Teotihuacán Pyramid, located around 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, to celebrate the spring equinox. Taking place on either the 20th or 21st of March annually, many celebrants use the morning to climb the 360 steps to the top of the Pyramid to get closer to the sky.
Floriade first began 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 bicentenary and Canberra’s 75th birthday. The result was a beautiful, exotic floral display, which was so wholeheartedly embraced by the local community, that it became an annual celebration of spring in the country. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from neighbouring Sydney and Brisbane to see more than a million flowers bloom in this month-long festival of color, music, and horticulture.
