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Spring Holidays, Observances, & Notable Dates Posters
for the classroom, home schoolers, and theme decor for offices.
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social studies > holidays & observances posters > SPRING
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Spring is the transition season between Winter, the coldest season of the year, and summer the hottest season; Spring is the opposite of Autumn. The word 'spring', is from the Latin ver, used to describe the vernal equinox, when the sun 'crosses' the celestial equator, to the summer solstice (sol + stitium= stoppage) when the sun is furthest from the celestial equator. In the northern hemisphere spring lasts from around March 21 to around June 21.
 The equinoxes and solstices mark relative positions of the orbiting Earth that has a 23.5° axis tilt to the orbit plane, thus varying the exposure of the northern and southern hemisphere and resulting in seasonal (periodic) changes. Because of this tilt the southern hemisphere experiences autumn when the northern hemisphere has spring. Stonehenge is an example of an ancient astronomical observatory, where the people could be assured that the sun was following its usual path.
Renewal and new life are welcome characteristics of spring after the domancy of winter. Longer daylight hours provide enough sunlight for plants to begin optimum growth and animals begin their reproductive cycle when the food supply increases.
Weatherwise the Spring season may not match the astronomical dates. Local weather is influenced by nearby geographic landforms such as large bodies of water that are cooled during the winter. Spring is also the time of the most unsettled weather as warm and cool air mix in the atmosphere.
Greek mythology explained the spring season as the joy of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, to her daughter Persephone's return from the underworld for six months. Easter, the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, and Passover, the Jewish festival of liberation from slavery in Egypt, are related to the time when people marked the joy of renewal.
Spring Observances and Events lists - March list | April list | May list | June list
• “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ~ Margaret Atwood
• “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” ~ Anne Bradstreet
• “Sweet as sweetest Grecian honey will my song be when I sing, O Beloved, in the season of the Spring!” ~ Rubén Darío
• “One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.” ~ Aldo Leopold
• “I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees.” ~ Pablo Neruda
• “Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
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Astronomy Week is between mid April & mid May near or before 1st quarter moon.
• Earth posters
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• animated .gif of seasonal changes based on this image.
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Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Exodus and freedom of the Israelites from ancient Egypt and marking the “birth” of the Children of Israel begins on the 15th day of the Jewish calendar month of Nisan, equivalent to March and April in Gregorian calendar. [calculate Julian and Gregorian dates]
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Easter is celebrated the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon which is the first full moon after the vernal equinox - sometime between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity).
• Christianity posters
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St. Patrick's Day, March 17
Shillelaghs & Shamrocks
Did you you know the “walking” cane (Gaelic bata) is called a shillelagh because the original stick came from the Shillelagh Forest in County Wicklow? The shamrock is a three leaf clover closely associated with Ireland and all things Irish, and reputed to have been used by Saint Patrick to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity. Irish Blessing, pdf download.
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April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is celebrated on April 1 by playing hoaxes and practical jokes on family, friends and neighbors.
Jesters and fools in the Middle Ages were thought of as those whom God had touched and were permitted to point out “foolishness” in their superiors and in tense situations.
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Arbor Day is celebrated in the United States to encourage the planting and care of trees. National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, and each state celebrates its own Arbor Day according to the best planting time.
• more trees posters
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April 22 - Earth Day, brought about by the desire to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment, was originally celebrated near the Northern Hemisphere's Spring Equinox date of March 20.
The April 22 date, designated in 2009 as International Mother Earth Day by the United Nations recognizes the anniversary of the environmental teach-in first held in 1970.
• “... Earth Day is to be the first completely international and universal holiday that the world has ever known. Every other holiday was tied to one place, or some political or special event. This Day is tied to Earth itself, and to the place of Earth in the whole solar system. ...” ~ Margaret Mead at the United Nations Earth Day Ceremony, 1977
• more April Observances
• more Earth posters
• ecology posters
• Environmental Bookshelf
• Rachel Carson posters
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• “May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.” ~ United Nations Secretary-General U Thant
• “Think Globally, Act Locally.” ~ Rene Dubos, Patrick Geddes, etal.
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May 1, May Day -
Dancing around the Maypole is still performed as a celebration of the return of life and hope on May 1, just as it was in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures.
• more dance posters
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Tornado
While most tornadoes occur in the midwest United States they also commonly occur in southern Canada, south-central and eastern Asia, east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and central Europe, Italy, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand. They have never been observed on the continent of Antarctica.
FACTS from poster text:
- In an average U.S. tornado season around 800 twisters are confirmed touching down.
- During a 1943 tornado in Charleston, South Carolina, thunder was heard, and rain and hail fell from the sky – along with an alligator!
- The single largest outbreak of twisters is 148 tornadoes in just 16 hours over 19 U.S. states.
- Twisters are classified into six categories of wind speed (F0 through F5), using the Fujita Intensity Scale.
- Only 2% of the tornadoes reach F4 or F5 status, with F5 tornadoes packing winds in excess of 260 MPH!
- The longest tornado path on record is 5 miles (8 km) with the width of 2 football fields.
- Tornadoes are the most violent winds on earth. These twisters can produce wind speeds as high as 300 miles per hour, travel longer than 100 miles (161 km) and reach up to 20,000 feet (6,096 metres) above ground.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
• Twister, DVD
• Wild Weather posters
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The astronomical arrival of spring doesn't mean that snow won't be available for making angels in the snow at the Capitol in Bismarck, ND. Saturday, March 23, 2002
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Artist Grant Wood, noted for his ability to simplifying and at the same time include accurate detail, evokes the security of the cycle of seasonal activities.
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Ann Jarvis, the woman who established “Mother's Day” as the 2nd Sunday in May in the US (1912) was firm in her goal for the day to be set aside for each family to honour their personal mother.
As a precursor the ancient Romans celebrated Matronalia with a festival for the goddess of childbirth, Juno.
• more Picasso posters
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The Greeks explained Spring as Demeter's joy upon the return of her daughter Persephone from the Hades' underworld. The Roman equivalent of Demeter is Ceres goddess of growing plants (note the similarity with the word cereal) and motherly love.
• Did you know a statue of Ceres is atop the Missouri State Capitol Building?
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Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, commemorates US men and women who died while in military service to their country. Decoration Day was first enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War and expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action. As a United States Federal holiday Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May.
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Two Tramps in Mud Time (1936), Robert Frost
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The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.
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