All around the world, spring is celebrated as a time of new birth and new beginnings. Read on to find out how the season of renewal is experienced in different countries.
Boston, USA
Boston Public Garden, Massachusetts. Credit: Dreamstime.com / Jorge Salcedo
When the weather warms, Boston bursts into bloom. Thousands of tulips explode in the Public Garden, and the magnolia trees of Commonwealth Avenue are sheathed in pink and white. Spring is a season of remembrance, with commemorations of events leading up to the American Revolution. It also marks the start of the season for the Boston Red Sox.
Winter tends to linger in Denmark and the snow is hard to shake off even in March. In April, Copenhagen’s world famous theme park Tivoli opens with a bang. Weekly pyrotechnics, indoor and open-air concerts, marching bands and blooming flowers turn the park into a veritable fairyland from now until autumn. This is the same park that inspired Walt Disney to create his own.
France
Kayserberg, Alsace, France. Credit: iStock / Freeartist
City parks, town squares and country lanes come into bloom, luring the French outdoors. The steep mountain meadows of the French Alps cannot be farmed intensively, and the absence of fertilizers and weedkillers enables wildflowers to flourish with abandon in spring, enchanting hikers who come to enjoy the Alpine air. For many the feeling that spring has properly sprung is strongest on May Day, when friends and families exchange posies of sweet-scented muguet (lily of the valley).
Great Britain
Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England. Credit: Dreamstime.com / Antonel
Spring breathes life into the British countryside, with beautiful bluebells carpeting the woodlands and newborn lambs finding their legs in the fields. May is packed with festivities, from quirky local events like the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll in Gloucestershire to the world famous Hay Literary Festival in Hay-on-Wye and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London.
Greece
Wild red poppies, Santorini, Greece. Credit: iStock / Gatsi
As warmer weather heralds the start of the tourist season, dormant hotels and shops reawaken and flora erupts in a beautiful display of colour. Red poppies blooming under Santorini’s clear blue skies make for a dreamlike scene. Pre-Lenten carnivals provide a lively warm-up for Orthodox Easter, the most important religious festival in Greece, which features a week of processions and seasonal food such as tsouréki (egg loaves).
Italy
St. Peter's Cathedral dome and Vatican gardens, Rome, Italy. Credit: Dreamstime.com / Mistervlad
The season kicks off with Easter, when the Pope’s address draws massive crowds to Rome, fireworks light up Florence and re-enactments of The Passion are staged in Sicily. Sporting events include everything from rugby to cycling, while music festivals such as Dolomiti Ski Jazz Festival and Florence’s Maggio Musicale, bring diverse sounds. The scent of citrus blossom lingers in the air and seasonal specialities like asparagus, spinach and rocket feature on menus.
Japan
Nemophila fields at Hitachi Seaside Park, Hitachinaka, Japan. Credit: iStock / PonAek
Across the country, the brief but beautiful sakura season brings with it the bittersweet feeling known as mono no aware: awareness of the impermanent. But this feeling is soon forgotten with riotous festivals, including Buddha’s birthday and Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo. Hitachi Seaside Park, located in the city of Hitachinaka, has become particularly known for its sea of baby blue Nemophila, which bloom in Spring.
The Netherlands
Tulip fields, the Netherlands. Credit: iStock / JacobH
The world’s greatest flower spectacle attracts gardening enthusiasts from all over the world to experience tulip season erupting in a riot of color. Koningsday (King’s Day) on April 27 brings beer-swilling hordes clad in vibrant orange together in a nationwide knees-up, while National Mill Day in May sees over 950 windmills and watermills beautifully decorated with flags, flowers and angels.
Portugal
Tropical Botanical Gardens in Funchal, Madeira island, Portugal. Credit: Dreamstime.com / Marius Dorin Balate
Portugal’s hillsides burst into life as spring flowers bloom across the country and mark the start of the cherry-picking season. Mid-May sees the jubilant Madeira Flowers Festival and its lively parade in Funchal. Around the same time, Easter festivities begin in earnest, with religious processions taking place nationwide. Every year, Freedom Day (April 25) celebrates the success of the Carnation Revolution and is observed throughout Portugal.
South Africa
Oryx between flowers, Namaqualand, South Africa. Credit: Dreamstime.com / Grobler Du Preez
All across the country, but especially noticeable in the semiarid Western and Northern Cape regions, the onset of warmer weather from September raises colourful fields of wildflowers. Unsteady newborns join the herds in South Africa’s many wildlife reserves, while whales congregate offshore around Hermanus for the breeding season – an event celebrated by the town’s annual Whale Festival.
Brief yet breathtaking, cherry blossom season heralds spring like nothing else. Here are the best places around the world to experience this fleeting spectacle.
With springtime sweeping across the continent in a riot of color, April is a spectacular time to travel in Europe. Whether you want to experience two seasons in one cruise in Norway or the natural theatre of springtime in the Netherlands, read on to discover the best destinations in Europe to visit in April.
