Spring Cleaning Traditions: Why Do We Clean every Spring?
I don’t know about you, but I found myself very curious about why Spring Cleaning is such a hot topic. We don’t tend to take our rugs outside and beat them anymore but at my house we do wash winter gear and store it away, wash blankets before storing them for summer and generally try to put winter behind us.
Occasionally I might clean out the pantry in the spring and thanks to Samantha Conner I have some great ideas on how to do this well.
I definitely take time to clean out kids’ clothes, give away the ones that are too small and take stock of what we need to replace for spring. It’s a great opportunity to encourage the kids to clean out toys, dust the corners of their bedroom and help with the cobwebs around the house and other chores.
I found the following information on various traditions of Spring Cleaning, maybe one of them is your family tradition. Thanks to Mrs Mopps for the following information.
- Cleaning is part of the Iranian Norouz, Persian New Year, which falls on the first day of spring and is called “Khooneh tekouni”, which literally means “shaking the house”
- Pagans and Wiccans practice cleaning rituals at Spring in order to renew the protection on their home, when mother nature renews the earth
- The Jewish faith cleans as part of the preparation for passover. Members of the faith remove all trace of leaven (bread yeast) from their homes by cleaning the whole home from top to bottom
- Greek and orthodox nations traditionally clean days before or during the first week of lent, which corresponds with the Julian new year on April 1st
- The tradition in Northern America and Northern Europe was to clean throughout March and April, as the weather was warm enough to open doors and windows to air the home, after a cold and wet winter, but cool enough still that the bugs are attracted indoors
What are your family traditions for Spring Cleaning? Share them here.
The article was great, but the last word should have said, “outdoors” instead of “indoors”.
😉