celebrating spring equinox

[masuki]

as plants start to emerge from their long winrer sleep, i am thinking about how to celebrate spring equinox, both on my own and as a family...

i am thinking perhaps of making some springtime crowns for the children, and processing to the top of the garden for a picnic, with a fire to keep us warm... saying prayers and blessings to the new life force that is flowing from mother earth...

do you have any ideas / rituals to share, for children or for yourself?

As a Catholic we have Lent (period when we pray more often, fast and make effort to improve ourselves) then Easter (when we celebrate the rising of Jesus), which in the UK happens at the same time as spring, which I've always found to be beautiful and meaningful. Where I live there is also Beltane, where they light a huge fire and process up a hill in costume which has symbolic meaning of fertility and fresh life. We have special cake (marzipan and good amount of fruit features), at the beginning of Lent plant some plants in the garden (hoping they will flower in time). We go to Mass and have(hopefully) the house spotless beforehand. I tend to bring flowers into the house and have special chocolates (usually an egg each). This year I'm also due to give birth at Easter, so I'm seeing the hard time (winter/lent, and to be honest difficult pregnancy) as the run up to a new hope and life childbirth/easter/spring.

bump...

My children and I are growing tomato plants, (my faith isn't necessarily going to be their faith). I tend to include them in whatever I am doing and this year it's growing plant to celebrate the return of spring and a bit of gardening.

We always do an egg hunt and make a cake as well as some gardening/ walking in the forest looking for signs of spring. DS loves this as, to him, it means having 2 Easters: The one I honour this weekend and the one that everyone else observes in a few weeks.