The Superintendent letter: Welcoming April and Spring

Welcome to April in Eatonville School District. We have just returned from the Spring Break week and we look forward to seeing the warm weather return.

The winter cold is leaving and each day is longer than the last. We all look forward to the new season, the time when you see changes in the world every day all around us. At night, if we are lucky, we hear the spring peepers, millions of frogs croaking into the wee hours of the night. During the morning, we hear all kinds of birds singing to each other. We love the transformation of rebirth.

Spring is also the season of new beginnings. Fresh buds bloom, animals awaken and have offspring, while the earth seems to come to life again. Farmers and gardeners plant their seeds and temperatures slowly rise. The timing of these changes varies depending upon location.

What most people call spring relies on the astronomical definition of the word which is generally considered the period between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, defined by the angle of Earth's tilt toward the sun. Equinoxes are special days during the year when day and night are almost equal. There are two equinoxes, one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring or vernal equinox occurs around March 20 in the Northern lands.
Many cultures celebrate the return of spring, the blossoming of nature or the rise of the vernal equinox. Spring in many countries, with a Christian tradition, is marked by Easter. However, it also has roots in older traditions.

"Easter is derived from a much older celebration of fertility and rebirth, the Celtic festival of Ostara," Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, states in an article for Live Science. "The bunnies and the eggs are symbolic of growth and rebirth.”

May Day celebrations are common around Europe. The Maypole dance is a popular folk festival, particularly in parts of Germany and the United Kingdom.

"The pole symbolizes sacred trees, the world axis, growth and regeneration," states De Rossi.

In Eatonville, we are so fortunate to celebrate May Day (Community Day) and to do so as a community. Community days are a time of homecoming.

This year we will be adding a week of music, and art into the week surrounding May Day. Please join us at 7 p.m. on April 29 for a Music Festival with Pacific Lutheran University and Eatonville School District students in the Eatonville High School Auditorium. Join us at 6 p.m. the following day, April 30, at Eatonville Elementary School for the first ARTS Extravaganza. To round out the week, please join us for Community Day at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 3, at Eatonville High School.

Whether you enjoy art, music or dancing, (or, if like me, all three) please know that we value these experiences for all, children and adults alike. Let us celebrate spring together!

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want — oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
— Mark Twain