Who was the first to make a festival of spring and sing its praises? What has spring inspired in artists and poets? Where is the longest spring on earth? And where the shortest?

The first to make a festival of spring were the Egyptians... On the wall of one of the temples in the city of Luxor in Egypt you may see a great picture representing the celebration of the spring festival... In the picture are two girls, each smelling a flower and transported by its fragrance... a third beauty eating some delicious fruits... and a youth playing upon his lyre.

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The first to sing of spring was Solomon the Wise, as I believe... If the Torah is reckoned the oldest book in the world, then the poet of poets, Solomon the Wise, was the first to sing of spring... He spoke of the green bower shaded over by grasses, and went on to say: “For the winter is past... the rain is over and gone... the flowers appear on the earth... the time of pruning is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree has put forth its green figs... and the blossoms of the vines give out their fragrance”...

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The most gifted singer of spring was the English poet Milton... The poor man was blind, yet he felt spring creeping through his veins, and he described its flowers in words threaded with sorrow... like that flower which filled its cup with tears... not with dew.

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Spring has inspired every true artist of delicate feeling... In the museums of art today hang oil paintings by the painters Botticelli... Fra Angelico... Constable... Corot and others — canvases such as Love in Spring... The Dance of Spring... Spring in the Morning... The Joy of Spring... The Springtime of Life, and more.