Words for Spring? Groundbreaking
April, in a sense, is party month across Asia. In India, it is a time of harvest festivals that also mark the start of a new year. In Punjab, this is Vaisakhi, traditionally celebrated with processions performing the nagar kirtan or collective singing of shabads or hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib. April holds the first day of the Malayali new year, when people in Kerala observe Vishu. In Maharashtra, it is marked as Gudi Padwa and in Assam, as Bohag Bihu.
For thousands of years, people in these regions have prayed, sung hymns, feasted and made sacrifices to the gods, in thanks for a plentiful harvest, and as a plea for good fortune in the years to come.
Travel east and the festivities continue. In Thailand, Songkran derives from the Sanskrit “Samkranti”, literally “astrological passage”. As a new year dawns here, people celebrate by throwing water at each other, in revelry that likely began as a cleansing ritual.
In Cambodia, Chaul Chnam Thmey (literally, Happy New Year) is marked at the end of the harvest season. Over three days (usually starting on April 13 or 14), people dress up, dance and play games; offer food to the poor.
In Laos, Pi Mai (or New Year) is also a three-day festival. On day one, considered the last day of the old year, houses are cleaned, village streets swept, and flowers and water prepared for the festivities. The second day is a day of rest, called “the day of no year”. The third day marks the start of the new, with rituals, prayers and celebration.
In end-april, Golden Week begins in Japan (April 29 to May 5). This string of national holidays kicks off with Showa Day, the birth anniversary of the former emperor Hirohito (1901-89; his nickname, Showa, is Japanese for Enlightened Peace).
Constitution Day follows, on May 3, followed by Greenery Day and Children’s Day, on May 4 and 5. That last one was originally named Boys’ Day. A cloth carp (the fish symbolises strength and success) was hung outside homes, with warrior dolls tucked into them. The fish was offered rice cakes, in a prayer for male children, for family lineage to continue, and for descendants to prosper.
The renaming of that festival is a happy turn of events. What’s something that has changed in how you celebrate a new year?