The Rites of Spring
Whenever potted tulips start appearing on the outdoor shelves of New York’s bodegas, locals know spring can’t be far off. These hot house-grown flowers are impossible to resist. So, I start putting potted tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths in containers around the apartment and patiently await the season changeover.
Like many people, spring is my favorite season. In addition to enjoying more daylight and warmer weather, it’s a time to be nostalgic. Invariably, I think back to my youth growing up in Belgium and to what spring represented then to a pre-teen.
Let’s go shopping in Holland
In early March, like clockwork, my parents would pack my older sister and me into the white Chevrolet and off we’d go to Rotterdam for an Easter outfit shopping spree. Twice a year, in fact, we would drive two hours to Holland to replenish the wardrobes my sister and I had outgrown the previous season.
Why Holland? Because the Dutch were much taller than the Belgians, and thus closer in height to hardy American children. Another reason was the availability of color. Whereas clothing for Belgian kids was offered in somber shades of grey, brown and dark blue—reminiscent of the country’s gloomy weather—in Holland you could find an array of bright, youthful colors. And, not just in apparel either.
The greatest flower park on earth
If we timed it right, our excursion would coincide with Holland’s tulip festival. That meant a side trip to Keukenhof, the largest and most famous flower park in the world where more than seven million flower bulbs are planted annually. Even now, over forty years later, I vividly remember the drive to the gardens passing stunning Dutch landscape with its flatlands, windmills, and vast commercial tulip fields, just like a scene lifted off the walls of an art museum.
A gardener’s paradise
There are simply no words to describe the magnificence of Keukenhof’s sculpted flower gardens. Breath-takingly beautiful, it was a sensory explosion of wild colors and intoxicating aromas. Soldier-rigid tulips in varying hues covering the entire color spectrum—from scarlet red, to deep purple, to electric yellow—were planted in perfectly manicured flower beds. Then, as if the eye could no longer absorb such vibrancy, your eye would spot a section of the garden with rows of baby bottom pink tulips next to delicate snow drops. Or rows of narcissus the color of butter next to sweet-smelling white hyacinths. Every spring flower imaginable was represented at Keukenhof.
The first signs of spring, the return of the birds
I was curious to see what spring looked like through the lens of my friends. Bruce Weinenger, former BATF executive, also talked about spring in nostalgic terms of his youth. “I often think back to when I was a youngster and having experienced a long, cold, dreary winter with lots of snow. (It seems to me we had a lot more snow and much colder winters than we do today.) I remember walking to school in deep snow up to my knees. Then there would come a day, on my way to school, when the sun was shining, the daffodils just popping up and the forsythia in bloom, and the first robin red breasts would be seen. Spring had arrived!
“Today I get the same feeling at the first signs of spring as I did when I was a young boy, but now I also anticipate the wonderful dishes my beautiful wife will prepare to celebrate the beginning of the season. For example, her spring risotto with tender asparagus, sugar snaps, and baby English peas which exemplifies the fresh, light flavors of the new season. Another dish I look forward to is her spring lamb covered with baby artichokes, whole heads of garlic, shallots and fresh rosemary.”
As Bruce pointed out, birds are amongst spring’s first harbingers. Architectural designer Kate Hanenberg agrees. “I have a bird outside my apartment window and two weeks ago it returned. Now it starts singing early in the morning. I have no idea what type of bird it is, but I am delighted it is back.” Turns out, according to a UK survey in 2017, the more birds people can see in their neighborhoods, the better their mental health is.
It’s all about the light
To Candace Jones, clinical social worker, “It’s the clear, radiant light we start seeing in early March which announces spring’s arrival. With the sun coming up earlier and the longer days the light has a difference look. It seems to have more clarity and intensity than what we experience in winter months.”
New York City’s celebrated Easter Parade
Springtime also brings meaningful religious holidays such as Passover and Easter. By extension, In New York that also includes the city’s annual Easter Day Parade, a tradition begun in the 1880s. Originally, people would leave their churches after service, dressed in all their finery, and stroll down Fifth Avenue between 49th and 57th Streets. Back then fancy bonnets were de rigueur. Now, our modern-day version is more about outlandish outfits and crazy, ornate headpieces including flower-adorned cages sometimes even with lived birds inside. Every year I’ve attended the parade there’s been an elderly woman in western garb who saunters down Fifth Avenue with an iguana lazily lounging on top of her straw cowboy hat.
My favorite, however, is the troupe of gay men who straddle the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral as if to thumb their noses at the Catholic Church. One year a member was dressed as Queen Elizabeth in a powder blue suit with matching hat and gloves along with the signature black purse. The “Queen” was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful “ladies-in-waiting” all decked out in pastel outfits along with sassy fascinators cocked dangerously to the side as if to defy gravity. Every year there’s a different satirical theme which is wildly anticipated by parade fans.
The shimmering streets of the City
When I asked my CPA pal Joan Ross what she liked best about spring, she didn’t skip a beat. “Why the flowering trees, of course!” She talked about how in early March she would first start seeing tiny lime green buds sprouting up on the tree branches. “Then, one day I would go to work in the morning and suddenly, by the time I came home all the trees in my neighborhood seemed to have simultaneously burst into delicate white flowers. The streets’ canopy of white blossoms appeared to shimmer against the evening sunlight. That’s when I knew spring had arrived.” (More than likely Joan was describing the Catalpa tree, one of the most prominent shade trees planted in the City.)
Spring’s edible bounty
As Bruce reminded me, “Spring is also when we can find all sorts of delicious, fresh produce at the 14th Street Farmers’ Market.” Indeed, gone are all the drab winter root vegetables, squash, and partially shriveled apples. In their place are ramps, fresh peas—English, snow and sugar snap—asparagus, fava beans plus rhubarb and early strawberries. According to a 2016 study of 12,000 Australians, the more fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in their diet—which spring’s bounty afforded them—the greater their satisfaction in life and level of happiness.
The rebirth of our body and soul
In spring “When we come out of ‘hibernation,’” as hospital administrator Kathy Kennerley describes it, “we awaken our bodies, ditch our heavy winter coats for lighter clothing, and begin again to enjoy nature and being outside.”
Spring is very much about the rebirth of nature and rejuvenation of our spirits. But in these times of Covid-19, as Kathy reminded us, “People are also starting to take baby steps towards normalcy especially with the increased number of Americans being vaccinated. It looks as if by April people might be more hopeful that they can be with their families in small groups to celebrate Easter and Passover.”
This year in particular, spring is very much about hope.