Lesson 6 Gale Virtual Reference Library

I first tried searching for “spring festivals” under Multicultural Studies and got 20 hits, mostly about Asian cultures that celebrate the Chinese New Year. That occurs between January 21 and February 20, so I didn’t think that would be what this patron wanted. I did find some information on the Powhatan tribe, but the celebration described was distinctly 20^th-21^st Century and seemed rather generic.

Next I searched for “spring and summer” in the Religion section and got 9 hits. Neo-Paganism was by far the most interesting. On May 1, Neo-Pagans celebrate Beltane to honor spring flowerings and birth, and on the spring equinox, they celebrate Ostara. Ostara is the goddess of fertility. A variation of her name is Eostre which has been corrupted into the word “Easter.” Her symbols include the egg and hare. Once I lived with a flock of geese that laid huge green eggs underneath plants and behind fences for 10 days each spring, and that’s where I thought our custom of gathering eggs at Easter came from. Wrong again!

I also discovered that Black Elk associated the direction east with green and spring. Searching under Nations, I found that Poland has a multitude of spring celebrations centered on Easter including fairs, pysanky or painting eggs, housecleaning rituals, and decorating pussy willow branches with ribbons.

The patron is asking for “spring” celebrations, and I kept finding Easter celebrations, but the Neo-Pagan article makes me think the connection between spring and Easter is pretty strong albeit subtle. So I stayed under Nations and clicked on Easter on the left menu. That brought up specific articles including recipes from such countries as Spain, Poland, Greece, the Ukraine, and Australia. In these articles, I discovered that spring housecleaning is a multinational activity, and that spring is also a good time to whitewash your windmills.

Several countries mark the coming of spring with something like an Advent calendar. In this case, it is a cardboard cutout of a woman or an animal with seven legs, one for each week of Lent. As each week is completed, a leg is torn off the calendar, and the calendar is burned during Holy Week. In Spain, bullfighting season commences around Easter. Perhaps most curious and disturbing is a photograph I found in the Spain article of people taking part in religious parade dressed in costumes reminiscent of those made notorious in the United States by the Ku Klux Klan. Next time I’m in Ancestry, I will be looking to see if Nathan Bedford Forrest has a Spanish ancestor.

In Advanced Search, I found that GVRL has added dozens of cultural heritage books since 2011 including many on individual Native American tribes. These resources are far more detailed than anything I could keep in our library. I also found a number of business books on topics ranging from Market Behavior to Rossignol to Offshore Agricultural Production in Saudi Arabia.