What’s Going On In … April

Cherry blossoms, flaming torches, horse-drawn carriages, wine in buckets, Thai New Year, splashing strangers.

Nara, Japan

As legend has it, when Omizutori is completed the cherry blossoms start blooming and spring has arrived. The rite, which dates back almost 1300 years, is the final observance in the two-week Buddhist ceremony of Shuni-e in early March. After sunset, priests carry flaming pine torches — six to eight meters in length — to a balcony of Todaiji Temple, where they shower burning embers over onlookers to wish them a safe year ahead. In the early morning hours that follow, priests repeatedly descend to draw from a well at the base of the temple building, said to bubble restorative water only on that day.

Seville, Spain

Along the banks of the Guadalquivir River, the festival Feria de Abril started in 1847 as a fair for cattle traders. Now with a makeshift community of around a thousand brightly-striped tents, the spring festival promises a full week, dusk-to-dawn celebration with hundreds of horse-drawn carriages, free-flowing manzanilla (dry sherry), bullfights, and sevillianas (the local form of flamenco dancing). Though many of the tents are run by families, organizations and clubs, some are free to the public, such as the infamous Er 77, where wine is drawn from a well and served in buckets.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Thai New Year festival of Songkran falls during the hottest time of the year, this year on April 13-15, but provides participants plenty of opportunity to revel in cooling down. With its name derived from the Sanskrit word for “astrological passage,” the three-day tradition of water throwing—from garden hoses, squirt guns, and buckets—started as a ritual pouring of good fortune on family and friends, but has evolved to good-natured celebration of splashing strangers on the street.

—Erica Berry