We live in a world that appears to be dominated by industrial pollution, a high-tech rat race, soulless city centres and urban sprawl, but when spring arrives it arrives everywhere. The metamorphosis that occurs when winter yields to spring is the most noticeable of the seasonal transformations, with marked changes taking place both in the natural world and in human beings and their daily lives. The world explodes with colors, sounds and sensations that were muted or entirely hidden during the gloomy days of winter.
A season of new growth
Spring is nature’s busiest time of year. Snow and ice recede as the sun appears at a new angle in the sky, to shed life-giving warmth on the grateful earth. Shoots of green grass appear, to feed the new lives that come with the new season. These signs are most abundant in the countryside, where spring lambs gambol in verdant meadows and glossy calves caper with joy at being alive. Even in the city, green shoots force their way between cracks in the footpath, pavement trees proudly exhibit their new buds, and parks and gardens burst into a riot of colour as spring bulbs reward the foresight of winter gardeners.
Birds are busy building nests in suburban yards, fruit trees put forth their delicate pink and white blossom and insects hatch out as they reach the next stage of their fleeting life cycle. A glance at the sky reveals geese and other birds on their return journey from winter migration. Nature reminds us that the inexorable rotation of seasons is not a phenomenon dependent on the whims and passing fixations of mankind.
Holiday rituals
Meanwhile, mankind is busy with other pursuits. Easter is the first of the spring holidays, and as we exchange chocolate eggs and plan our camping trips or beach-side escapes, few of us realise that the traditions and the very name of this Christian festival in fact go back to pagan times and the fertility rites associated with the vernal equinox. The northern European goddess of spring and fertility, Eoster, lent her name to the Christian festival whose date roughly coincided with pre-Christian celebrations of spring, and brought the fertility symbols of eggs and rabbits with her.
Spring brides
Brides favour spring weddings, when orange blossom is abundant and warmer days and longer twilight hours offer the possibility of a partially outdoor event and the hope that the leading lady, her attendants and her female guests will not need to shiver too much in their insubstantial outfits. For spring is the season of romance, not just for the birds and the bees but for humans as well.
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day gets in an early warning that the time for spring dalliance and rising sap is upon us. It is as if the giddy scent of blossom and spring bulbs and the mesmerising twitter of birdsong go straight to the collective head of mankind, driving young and old and everyone in between to satisfy a primeval urge to indulge in seasonal shenanigans, either with a new sweetheart or with the love of a lifetime.
At the same time as all this natural activity is going on all around, people have to cope with the start of the spring sporting seasons, spring cleaning, new spring fashions, spring sales in the stores and a flurry of spring activity in the real estate market. Then the really warm weather arrives with the summer months, giving a timely reminder to slow down. The joys of spring are fortunately short-lived. Rejoice in the signs that spring has arrived, but when they have gone it is perfectly acceptable to feel a sense of relief. The very next winter will ensure that you are yearning for spring long before it comes.
