New Urban Habitat

The first day of spring is on March 20. What better time to start some new traditions? Here are some ideas:

• Place a bouquet of crocuses, daffodils, tulips, or dandelions in your kids’ bedrooms while they sleep, so they wake up to fresh spring flowers.
• Go on a hike and identify wildflowers if some are sprouting in your area.
• Visit a local farm and see if you can get a glimpse of calves, lambs, or chicks in the barnyard.
• Make dandelion or clover chains if those flowers are coming up where you live. Wear them as spring crowns.
• Watch the sun rise. (You can find out what time it will rise here.)
• Sow seeds. Have each family member pick a favorite flower to plant. Designate a special garden, and make a ceremony of it.
• Establish a table-top, shelf, or mantel to display a seasonal tableau. On the first day of spring, replace the winter decorations with spring flowers, cherry buds, egg shells, a bird’s nest, or whatever symbolizes springtime in your family.
• Collect books about the seasons at yard sales, used-book stores, and thrift shops year-round. Choose a special basket or shelf for them, and change them out on the first day of each season. Or take a trip to the library a few days before your celebration. Some of my family’s favorite spring picture-books are: Spring: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schur, Spring by Ron Hirschi, and Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.
• Read aloud from The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth by Ellen Jackson.
• Make a spring feast with the first crops of the season. Dandelion leaves, steamed nettles, and asparagus are delicious spring greens. Other traditional spring foods include eggs, ham, and sweets.
• Eat dinner by candlelight.
• Eat outside if weather permits, or have a picnic on a blanket in the living room.
• Decorate hard-boiled eggs with natural dyes. Try beets, cranberries, blackberries, or raspberries for red; yellow-onion skins or turmeric for yellow; parsley, spinach, or red-onion skins for green; blueberries for blue; and coffee, pecan hulls, or black-walnut hulls for brown. Or experiment – try whatever’s coming up in your backyard. You can read more about making natural egg dyes in the book Together: Creating Family Traditions.

Or create your own traditions to welcome spring this March 20.

Mark your 2010 Calendars

Summer Solstice   -    June 21
Autumn Equinox  - September 22
Winter Equinox – December 21

Resources for seasonal celebrations:

The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays by Anthony F. Aveni
Ceremonies of the Seasons by Jennifer Cole
The Spring Equinox: Celebrate the Greening of the Earth by Ellen Jackson
Together: Creating Family Traditions by Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes
The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule

(This post was adapted from Welcome Spring!, posted March 17, 2009.)

*Are you planning a celebration for the first day of spring?*