Spring is a time for contemplation and celebration. From ancient lands inhabited well before the Common Era (CE) to North America, people find reasons to herald the return of the sun to the Northern Hemisphere.
Some of the largest celebrations include:
Nowruz, the Persian New Year, begins at the precise moment the sun crosses the equator to mark the start of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s been observed for at least 3,000 years. CNN likens the celebration to a “combination of Christmas, New Year’s and July 4”. It’s a secular holiday rooted in ancient Zorosastrian beliefs (one of the world’s oldest active religions that worships a single god focusing on good and evil and, ultimately, the destruction of evil). This year an estimated three million people took part in celebrations.
This past weekend Sikhs began marking Vaisakhi, also known as Baisakhi. The festival began as a celebration of the harvest hundreds of years ago in the Punjab region of India, and B.C. has some of the largest Vaisakhi celebrations outside India.
Vaisakhi took on a special meaning in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, created the order of Khalsa. The word means pure. Folks who take in Vaisakhi come away with full stomachs and a full wallet thanks to Sikh generosity. The giving out of food comes from the tradition of langar, the word for the free community meal shared with all every day at Sikh temples. Colourful Vaisakhi parades draw thousands each year.
Passover, called Pesach in Hebrew, one of the major observances of the Jewish faith, is tied to an old calendar and celebrated in the month of Nissan. The holiday celebrated the liberation of the Jews by their god from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under Moses. The details of how Pesach came about are found in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament of the Bible. Ten plagues were visited on the Egyptians, the last of them being death to the first born of each household. The Jews were told to mark their thresholds with lambs’ blood and the devastation would ‘pass over’ their homes.
Another spring celebration, arguably the most important in the Christian calendar, centres around the same time as Passover. On that day in approximately 30 CE, Christ gathered his disciples together for what has come to be known as the Last Supper. The next day marked the crucifixion, a holy day marked by all followers of Christian faiths. Easter Sunday celebrates the resurrection of Christ and the hope of new life for all believers.
As with all major celebrations that began as religious festivals, our modern day spring holidays now combine the secular with elements of the original observance. They’ve become a way to bring people together to share different cultures. But whatever the belief, it seems to me the big take-away is that the rebirth of the Earth brings joy. No matter how we celebrate the coming days, may they bring peace to all of us.
