A History Of Holidays & Festivals - March, April & May

A History of Holidays and Festivals March, April, and May Holidays and festivals are how we mark our passage through each year. They are a special, sparkling moment and a chance to take a break from the routine of everyday life. They are also a way to build traditions which connect us to our ancestors, our communities, and our futures. In this four-part series, installments released each season, we will travel through the calendar together and take an in-depth look at ten of the world's most popular festivities in each of the four seasons. We'll learn more about the history and traditions of the holidays you may already be celebrating and discover festivals from other cultures around the world for how, when, and why we come together to celebrate, says as much about how we are the same as how we are different. In this episode, we'll explore ten holidays which are usually celebrated in the months of March, April, or May. Spring if you happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn in the Southern. Noraz Zoroastrianism began in the 6th century BCE in the Persian plateau. It is one of the world's oldest surviving religions, with about 120,000 followers, and it has influenced culture throughout the region and the world. The faith is based on the teachings of Zoroaster, that the one supreme benevolent god, Ahura Mazda, will ultimately triumph over Angra Menyu, the god of destruction. Zoroastrian mythology credits the first Noraz celebration to King Jamshid. During his reign, the world was facing a devastating winter that would kill every living creature. So the king came up with a plan. He built a throne, studded with brilliant gems, then ordered demons to raise him high above the earth into the heavens. There he sat, shining like the sun, defeating the dark, cold, killer winter. The world's creatures scattered jewels around him and proclaimed that it was a new day, or Noraz. The holiday begins with the vernal or spring equinox, between March 19 and 22. It marks the first day of spring and celebrates fertility and peace. Noraz also ushers in the new year in the Iranian solar calendar. The holiday far outreaches Zoroastrianism and is observed by 300 million people in the Middle East and around the world. Families clean their homes and decorate with elaborate trays of sapsi, lentil sprouts, and a hafsin, a display of seven ingredients beginning with the letter S in the local language. Each symbolizes a different concept, such as garlic for health, vinegar for patience, and apples for beauty. Feasts and picnics of local delicacies are enjoyed during the 13 days of celebration. Communities come together for street festivals, poetry, folk music, and dancing, and the nights are lit up with incredible displays of bonfires, torches, and fireworks. The world's oldest surviving religion, Hinduism emerged in the Indus Valley around 2300 BCE. It has numerous variants, mythological stories, and gods, but is unified with the common belief in dharma, the concept of cosmic order. The Hindu Spring Festival, which is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains, and Nuars, is holy. According to mythology, King Haranyakashyapu grew so powerful that he demanded his people worship him as a god, but his own son Prahlada refused and continued to worship Vishnu, the protector of dharma. The king grew infuriated, so his sister Holika decided to trick her nephew into sitting on a burning pyre with her. She wore a magical cloak which protected her from the flames, but as the pyre grew hotter, the cloak flew off of Holika's shoulders and encased Prahlada. He survived while Holika was burned alive. The festival of Holi takes its name from Holika. It celebrates the triumph of good over evil, the beginning of spring, and the hope for a fruitful harvest. Holi is a time to rid oneself of past errors. In conflicts, forgive and forget. It is celebrated each year on the evening of the full moon, during the Hindu month of Falgun, mid-March in the Gregorian calendar. The evening before, celebrants gather around bonfires to sing and dance. The next day is one of the world's most colorful holidays. Literally, people use water guns, balloons, and their hands to drench each other in brightly colored powders. During these color-throwing events, drums beat, instruments sound, and people sing and dance. Red sandalwood, yellow turmeric, green leaves, purple indigo, magenta beetroot, brown tea, and many other plants make these vibrant hues. The changing of the seasons often brings with it colds and fevers, so covering friends and neighbors with herbal medicine was likely first suggested by ancient Ayurvedic doctors. In recent years, metal-based industrial dyes have been used, but they have been found to irritate the eyes and skin and pollute the environment, so there is a movement to get back to natural ingredients. People enjoy eating local delicacies and enjoying a drink called bhang, made from milk, spices, and cannabis. It has a mild hallucinogenic effect, which make the colors of Holi all the brighter. Spring is the season when many animal species deliver their young and when new crops are planted in the hopes that they will grow and nourish the community. Therefore, many ancient peoples associated spring with fertility and motherhood. The Greeks worshipped the mother deity Rhea, and the Romans honored the maternal goddess Sibyl at the vernal equinox. In this vein, the medieval church created Mothering Sunday. As the fourth Sunday in Lent, it is also known as Refreshment Sunday, a day of respite from fasting, halfway through the challenging 40-day period of restraint. Christians were allowed one day to enjoy meat, dairy, and sweets. But it wasn't hard-working mothers who were thanked and given a little treat on Mothering Sunday. It was the mother church. Christians were expected to visit the church in which they received the greatest gift of all, the sacrament of baptism. While back in their hometowns, they might presumably give the woman who gave them the gift of life a peck on the cheek and take her to church. On May 12, 1907, Anna Jarvis held the first Mother's Day service at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. She organized the event to honor her own beloved mother, Anne Marie, who had recently passed away. The peace activist and suffragist promoted Mother's Day as a time to celebrate mothers and the love they give, and for mothers to pray that their husbands and sons would no longer be sent to war. At first, Congress rejected her proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would have to proclaim a mother-in-law day as well. But by 1914, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day a national holiday. Across the pond, Constance Penwick Smith was inspired to dust off the old tradition of mothering Sunday. This is why mothers in the UK are honored in March, and those in the US have to wait until the second Sunday in May. Other nations across the world have their own Mother's Days, which are usually, but not always, in the spring. Businesses immediately saw the opportunity to capitalize on the holiday by promoting the expectations that mothers be presented with flowers, candy, jewelry, champagne brunches, and other trifles on their special day. At the end of her life, Anna Jarvis was deeply disappointed with the commercialization of the holiday she had given birth to, and even tried to have it rescinded. A likely apocryphal tale claims that her final medical bills were paid for by the florist industry. The popularity of Mother's Day inspired the creation of holidays to honor other members of the family, most notably Father's Day, which is celebrated in most countries on the third Sunday in June. This special day to thank fathers for their love and contribution often involves barbecues and presents. You can also celebrate Grandparent's Day, Sibling's Day, Son's Day, Daughter's Day, Pet's Day, and more. Dates vary by country. Check your local listings. St. Patrick's Day Patrick was born into a wealthy Roman family in the colony of Britannia in the 4th century. When he was 16, Gallic raiders attacked his settlement and kidnapped him. He was enslaved and taken back to Ireland, where he worked as a shepherd for six years. In the fields, he had a vision of God, who instructed him to flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After making his way across the sea, Patrick became a priest. He then returned to Ireland to convert thousands of pagans to Christianity. He supposedly used the three-leaf clover to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity. According to tradition, St. Patrick died on March 17 and was buried in Donpatrick. Over the centuries, many legends grew up around the Irish patron saint. The most famous is that he chased all the snakes out of Ireland and into the sea. However, scientists have proven through fossil records that Ireland has never had snakes. The banished serpents are often portrayed as a metaphor for ancient pagan knowledge. The Feast of St. Patrick falls in the middle of Lent, so Ireland honored its favorite saint with a day off from fasting when food and alcohol could be enjoyed. The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in North America in 1601. The Irish diaspora, which grew particularly large with people fleeing the Great Famine in the 1840s, has taken this celebration of the saint and Irish culture at large to all corners of the globe. It is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and parts of Canada. And while people in other countries still have to work, St. Patrick's Day has become a major holiday, with parades and parties in every city with an Irish population. New York City hosts the largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world, with over one million spectators watching floats, Celtic bands, and troops of Irish dancers. Sydney Opera House is lit up green, and the Chicago River is dyed green. The day has become associated with the Irish mythological fairy creature, the leprechaun. They are usually depicted as small, bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who play mischievous pranks. According to folklore, you must wear green on St. Patrick's Day, which will make you invisible to leprechauns. Those who do not don the verdant hue will get pinched. If you catch a leprechaun, you can demand that he give you his gold, which he keeps in a pot at the end of the rainbow. While St. Patrick's is seen by many as a day of fun and frolic, it has been criticized for promoting public drunkenness and negative Irish stereotypes. According to the biblical Book of Exodus, the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt for generations. God commanded their leader, Moses, to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Israelite people go. Pharaoh refused, so God unleashed ten terrible plagues on the people of Egypt. The Nile became a river of blood. Frogs, lice, and flies destroyed all the crops, and the livestock fell dead from pestilence. Boils infected the people, who were then pelted with hail and thunderstorms. Locusts swarmed the land, and the sun was obscured for three days of darkness. Still, Pharaoh refused to free the Israelites. Finally, Moses called down the tenth and most terrible plague of all, the death of every Egyptian firstborn male. The prophet instructed his own people to mark their doorposts with sacrificial lamb's blood, so the angel of death would pass over their homes and spare their children. In the ensuing chaos, Moses and his followers made a break for it. With Pharaoh and his army in hot pursuit, the prophet parted the Red Sea and led the Israelites to safety on the other side, where they wandered through the desert for forty years, before finally finding the promised land. Jewish people retell this important story from their history every year at Passover, or Peshach. It is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, in March or April on the Gregorian calendar. In Judaism, days begin at sunset. Families gather together for a special meal called a Seder. The youngest child who can read sings a song called the Four Questions, about why the night is special. The foods eaten represent part of the Passover story. Two different bitter herbs, usually horseradish and lettuce, represent the bitterness of slavery. Parsley is dipped in salt water to represent the tears of enslavement. Eggs symbolize the circle of life. A roasted bone represents the sacrificial blood that was used to mark the doors. And horset, a sweet paste made from fruits and nuts, represents the bricks and mortar Israelites used to build Egypt, and the sweetness of freedom. Candles are lit. Prayers, songs, and wine is enjoyed. It is traditional to place an extra goblet of wine at the table for the prophet Elijah, who will someday come to announce the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Towards the end of the Seder, the door is opened to allow Elijah to enter. Passover lasts for eight days, during which Jewish people abstain from eating leavened bread because their ancestors did not have time to wait for their bread to rise before fleeing Egypt. Matzah is a popular alternative. Easter. According to the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus and his apostles were in Jerusalem for a Passover Seder, a.k.a. the Last Supper. After dinner, Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested on the orders of Pontius Pilate, governor of the Roman province of Judea. Roman and Jewish officials executed him via the agonizing method of crucifixion. Afterward, his body was taken down, washed, and buried in a tomb. But three days later, his tomb was found to be empty. Jesus appeared to his apostles and showed them the wounds in his hands and feet, proving that he had been resurrected from the dead. He then rose into the heavens. Early Christians celebrated Christ's resurrection on the fourth night of Passover, thus it could occur on any day of the week. But Easter Wednesday just didn't have the same ring, so in 325, Emperor Constantine declared that Easter must always occur on a Sunday, specifically the first Sunday after the first moon after the spring equinox, which falls somewhere between March 22nd and April 25th. Easter is considered the most important holiday in the Christian year. In fact, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII specifically so Easter would be observed on the correct day. As Christianity spread across Europe, the Church struggled to wipe out existing pagan spring fertility festivals, so instead they sanctified them and redirected their meaning to the worship of Jesus. In many European languages, the word for Easter and for Passover are the same, but in English, Easter likely comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess, Estre. It is said that she flew through the heavens each spring, ushering in light, growth, and birth to the land. Eggs, an ancient symbol of fertility and the circle of life, have long been associated with Estre. They became part of Easter in the 13th century. The golden yoke is said to represent Jesus' emergence from the tomb. The shells were painted red to stand for his blood. Eastern Orthodox communities still dye their eggs red. In 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes held the first Easter egg roll on the White House lawn, a tradition which is observed to this day. In 1885, Emperor Alexander III commissioned the first gold, jewel, and diamond-encrusted Fabergé egg as an Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Feodrovna. The fertile rabbit was an ancient symbol of spring, and the folktale of the Easter bunny, who hopped from house to house laying colorful eggs for good boys and girls, was first published in Germany in 1678. Like so many other holidays, 19th century industrialists capitalized by making egg-shaped chocolates and candies, and so the tradition of Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets emerged. Families also attend church and gather for Easter meals, which vary by culture. The centerpiece is often either ham or lamb, surrounded by spring vegetables. The British bake hot cross buns, Russians make a pyramid of cream cheese, called pashka, the Dutch enjoy advocaat, an egg-based dessert drink, and Americans have marshmallow peeps. Vaisakhi, or Basakhi, marks the first day of spring and has been an important harvest market in the Punjabi region of modern-day India for hundreds of years. It remains a significant festival for Hindus all over the world, but it also has special meaning for Sikhs. Sikhism emerged in the 15th century, when Guru Nanak rejected Hinduism and Islam in favor of worshiping one God. He and the nine Gurus that followed him taught three main pillars, remembering God through meditation, earning an honest living, and sharing with others. Sikhs also strive to live by five key virtues, truth, compassion, contentment, humility, and love. Sikhism rejects claims that any religion has a monopoly on truth, and thus they do not proselytize. Today there are 24 million Sikhs around the world. For them, Vaisakhi marks April 13, 1699, the day the tenth and final Guru, Gobind Singh, tested the faith and courage of his followers. He created the Khalsa, a special group of the faithful who worship God daily. On Vaisakhi, Sikhs visit Gurdwaras, their place of worship. They are decorated with flowers and offerings, and the holy scriptures are read aloud. People are baptized with water. They hold community fairs and parades with singing and dancing, and they gather to socialize and share festive foods, including coconut laddu, makki ki roti, sargan khonsag, and fruit lassi. Vaisak, Siddhartha Gautama, was born into a royal family in modern-day Nepal in the 6th or 5th century BCE. He left his life of wealth and comfort to survive as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of poverty, hunger, abstinence, and meditation, he attained nirvana. Then known as the Buddha, he wandered through modern-day India, teaching others how to free themselves from ignorance, craving, and suffering through meditation, mindfulness, and kindness. When the Buddha died, he attained parinirvana, the final release from reincarnation and existence. While Buddhism largely disappeared in India in the 8th century, it grew in the rest of Southeast Asia. Today, there are 500 million Buddhists around the world. Vaisak celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. It occurs each year on the full moon during the month of Buddha's birth, Vaisakha on the Hindu lunar calendar. This is why the name of this holiday is so similar to the Hindu and Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. Vaisakha falls in April, May, or June. Buddhists wear white and gather at temples before dawn to meditate and hear lessons. They hoist the Buddhist flag and sing hymns. Devotees bring offerings of flowers, candle, and incense to lay at the feet of their teachers. These remind them that flowers will wither and candles and incense will burn away, just as all life is subject to decay and destruction. During Vaisakha, Buddhists make special effort to refrain from killing of any kind, and vegetarian eating is expected. In Sri Lanka, all liquor shops and slaughterhouses are closed. People give cards to friends and loved ones and decorate with lanterns to symbolize enlightenment. Giant elaborate pin dolls are erected in public places, which often depict scenes from the life of the Buddha. Shinto is the oldest surviving religion in Japan, dating to the Yayoi period in 300 BCE. The faith centers around nature, worshiping ancestors, and kami, sacred powers in the cosmos that are thought to inhabit all things and manifest in shrines. There is no governing body for the faith, and the faithful do not have a specific day of worship. Instead, they come to shrines to pray as often as they are moved to. Each shrine has its own special day, called Reisai. It might be the birthday of the shrine's deity, the day they became holy, or the day they died. If there is no specific date, the Reisai is usually aligned with a springtime or autumnal celebration. The central events in the shrine's special day are a formal ceremony, often involving prayers for prosperity and blessings, as well as a procession, during which the portable shrine is carried through the community. Shrines are decorated with flowers, tea, and bonsai. At night, they are illuminated with lanterns. At some shrines, traditional music, dance, and martial arts demonstrations are performed. May Day and Walpurgis Night The first of May falls halfway between the vernal equinox and summer solstice. Early Romans dedicated it to one of their oldest deities, Flora, the goddess of flowers and fertility. The Florilia festival opened with theatrical performances. Emperor Galba was entertained by the spectacle of a tightrope-walking elephant. During five days of feasting, celebrants wore flower crowns, spread seeds, released hares and goats, and laid bundles of wheat and flowers on Flora's shrine. The festival ended with sport and equestrian competitions in the circus, and a sacrifice to the goddess. As upper-class Romans got more hedonistic in the 2nd century, they introduced the epic party of Maoma. They dedicated the month of May every three years to Bacchus, the god of wine, and Venus, the goddess of love. The government supplied enough torches to light 30 days of feasting, partying, and debauchery. But when Constantine the Great converted the empire to Christianity, he put a stop to all that. Each spring, the Gallic people of Ireland and Scotland celebrated Beltane, meaning bright fire. On the evening before May, they hailed the end of winter and return of spring with bonfires. People dressed up, and humans and livestock walked around or even jumped over the flames to symbolize purification and renewed life. Neo-pagans and Wiccans continued to celebrate Beltane today. When Germany and Scandinavia were converted to Christianity, their pagan spring festivals were rebranded as Walpurgisnight, after Saint Walpurga, an 8th century Anglo-Saxon missionary who converted many in the Frankish Empire. According to legend, she fought against pests, rabies, whooping cough, and witchcraft. The night of April 30th is thought to be a time when witches flew through the night and gathered in covens to cast spells on the community. So Walpurga was invoked, bonfires were lit, and people dressed up and played loud music to ward off witches and other malevolent spirits. Walpurgisnacht is still widely celebrated in German-speaking countries and in Finland. The tradition of the maypole emerged in Central Europe in prehistoric times. Its original symbolism has been forgotten, but it is theorized to connect to Yadrasil, the world tree in Norse mythology. Communities erect a maypole in a central location, play music, and dance around it. The maypole custom was carried to the British Isles in the 1300s. There the addition of ribbons was added. Dancers encircle the tree, each holding the end of a colorful ribbon. The other end is secured to the top of the maypole. As they dance, the ribbons wind and unwind around the maypole in an elegant, vibrant design, symbolizing the shortening and lengthening of days throughout the seasons. In many Nordic countries, where May is still quite chilly, this tradition is saved for Midsommar, which we will explore in the next installation of A History of Holidays. Whatever holiday you celebrate, have a happy and healthy March, April, and May, and join me at the beginning of June, when we'll explore 10 more summer holidays and festivals. Want even more tea on history? Check out the History Tea Time Podcast. Don't want to wait to see the next episode? Channel members and patrons get exclusive early access to all of my multi-part series. If you would like to support my work, then please click the join button or the Patreon link in the description. Thank you for watching.