The Panther Prints

What do you think of when you hear the word April? Do you think of spring and newly blooming flowers or do you think about April Fool's Day and the pranks? April originally used to be the second month of the year, still following March, of the Roman calendar year. But it became the fourth month around 450 BCE with only 29 days. But when Pope Gregory created the Gregorian calendar in 1582, he changed it to 30 days of April. There are several theories about the etymology of April, the first is that April, came from aperire which means ‘to open’ in Latin. A second theory is that April was named after the Greek goddess of love and beauty, “Aphrodite”. Or another theory that Jacob Grimm, a famous linguist, though was that there was a god or hero named Aper or Aprus April is actually National Humor Month as well as Mathematics Awareness Month and National Poetry Month. April is a wonderful month, we get the chance to fully appreciate spring.

The History of Spring Cleaning When I hear those words butterflies of excitement rise in my stomach. It time for “Spring Cleaning.” Spring cleaning has been a tradition in my house for as long as I can remember. Going through my desks and all the random boxes in my house feels as though I’m starting from scratch. It gives me the ability to reorganize my room and make space for brand new things. Spring cleaning is one of my favorite times of the year and going through it this year I started to wonder about the history of the tradition.  It all started as a Jewish tradition in which families would go through their home and perform a “deep cleaning” in preparation for Passover. Jewish families were supposed to rid their houses of any remnants of chametz for the duration of the holiday. This resulted in a complete cleaning of their homes. Since Passover is in spring the tradition of hunting for chametz took place the week before, hence the name “Spring Cleaning.” As time went on spr...