Seasonal

Time For A Spring Clean

During the long, dark winter, when the sun is low in the sky and the perpetual cloud blanket obliterates its light anyway, dust and dirt are able to hide themselves very effectively in the corners, on the surfaces and even on the windows of our homes.

By early spring all is looking brighter – in every respect. But those unforgiving shafts of light slide marks on the door, the ring marks on tables and the thick layer of dust on the mantelpiece. It must be time for a spring clean. An article in the Manufacturer and Builder magazine of 1872 (a ‘practical journal of industrial progress’) describes spring cleaning as “The season of general cleaning, when all the corners and closets are overturned and hidden things are brought to light”. Whilst period dramas such as Downton Abbey have inspired a new generation to revive traditional kitchen skills, it’s questionable be tempted to adopt the cleaning methods recommended by the magazine, which include black-leading grates, whitewashing walls and scalding bedsteads. The Victorians may have excelled at spring cleaning but they certainly didn’t invent it. Some historians believe that the origins of this tradition date back to the ancient Persian New Year, the Iranian Norouz spring. Iranians still practice ‘khooneh tekouni’ – which literally translates as ‘shaking the house’ – at this time. The Jewish feast of Passover is a religious festival that also hints at a possible origin for spring cleaning. During the holiday the faithful are instructed to refrain from eating any leavened foodstuffs (‘chametz’). The Bible commands that even tiny crumbs must be removed from the house and this results in a ritual hunt for crumbs by candlelight during the evening before the holiday begins. Christianity has its own spring cleaning traditions. In Greece, householders clean everything of Lent, as a physical manifestation of Lent’s message of spiritual cleansing and renewal. For the ancient Chinese, the concept of New Year cleaning is associated with good fortune. They believed that people should sweep their during the last twelve months. Householders then locked up the broom for a few days to prevent sweeping away any good luck that might have entered at the turn of the year. When ancient cultures share such similar traditions it’s hard to say exactly when and where the idea of ‘spring cleaning’ originated. However, it’s obvious that the urge to clear away the cobwebs of winter and prepare for the summer months is hardwired into human DNA. With so many months since we’ve been allowed visitors in our homes, you’ll want to be gleaming