The Spring Opening: the ritual

Spring Opening is for the first warm weekend of the year, when you can finally open the windows without a coat on. You let the winter air out of every room, carry a little palo santo smoke through the house, then close the windows, light a glass full of real pressed flowers and write down three things you want to start. You end the morning in a house that feels aired, and with a short list for the season ahead.

Where the custom comes from

Opening the house in spring is one of the most widespread customs there is. In Iran, families prepare for Nowruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox, with khaneh tekani, "shaking the house": carpets are beaten, windows washed, every corner turned out before the new year begins. In Northern Europe, spring cleaning had a very practical reason. After a winter of fires and closed shutters, every room was grey with soot.

The spring equinox itself, around 20 March, is the moment day and night are of equal length. From here on, the light wins. The English monk Bede wrote in the eighth century that the Anglo-Saxons named their spring month after a goddess called Eostre, and many people link the word Easter to her. Bede is our only source for her. The festival called Ostara on the modern Wheel of the Year is younger still: the name was added in 1974. The custom of opening the house is old. The names around it are partly new.

Why a candle

In winter we light candles against the dark. In spring the candle does a different job. It marks a beginning.

We chose the Woodwick Forest Candle by Greenman in the scent Leaves & Linen. Its wick is a thin strip of wood that crackles softly as it burns. Green is the colour of new leaves, and in modern candle magic it stands for growth and new beginnings, which is exactly what a spring morning is about.

The second light is the Pressed Flower Glass "Primavera": a small glass bowl with real flowers pressed into it. With a tealight inside, the petals glow from within. The tealight is not part of the set, so use any small tealight you have.

The scent

Palo santo means "holy wood" in Spanish. It comes from a tree of the dry coastal forests of Ecuador and Peru, where burning small sticks of the fragrant wood is a long-standing folk custom. Lit, it gives a thin, pale smoke that smells sweet and woody with a bright touch of citrus. Many people find it light and clear rather than heavy, which is why we chose it for spring.

Leaves & Linen is the candle. Greenman describes it in three notes: green leaves, clean linen and musk. Think of sheets drying on a line outside on the first warm day, with a hedge just coming into leaf behind them. After the smoke has cleared and the windows are shut, it fills the room with something close to the air you just let in.

We chose them together because they tell the morning in order: first the wood smoke as you walk through the rooms, then the smell of fresh linen when you sit down.

Why these pieces

Woodwick Forest Candle

The pressed flower glass. Real flowers, pressed and set into glass, 8 by 10 cm. A tealight holder and a little window into summer.

Pressed Flower Glass · Primavera

The blue lotus holder. A blue ceramic lotus, 13 cm across, that holds a stick of palo santo while it glows. The lotus is a sacred flower in India and ancient Egypt, a bloom that rises clean out of muddy water. Here it also does a practical job: it gives the glowing wood a safe place to rest and catches the ash.

Lotus Holder · Blue

The palo santo sticks. About 25 g, three to four sticks of fragrant wood.

Green Tree Palo Santo Sticks

Rose quartz on a stand. A piece of pale pink rose quartz on a small metal stand, 13 cm tall. Rose quartz is known today as the stone of affection, a meaning that comes from twentieth century crystal books rather than from antiquity. We put it in this ritual for the people who share the house with you: it stands on the windowsill as a small pink sign that spring is for everyone under this roof.

Rose Quartz on a Stand

Together they make one spring morning: air, then smoke, then flowers and a flame, and a stone that stays on the sill all season.

How to do the ritual

1. Choose the first warm day. A weekend morning is best.
2. Open every window in the house for ten minutes.
3. Light the palo santo. Hold the tip of one stick in a flame for about half a minute until it catches, then blow it out so it glows and smokes. Set it in the lotus.
4. Walk it through the rooms. Carry the lotus with both hands, slowly, room by room. If you like, say quietly in each doorway: "Spring is here."
5. Let it rest. Put the lotus back on a heat-proof surface and let the palo santo go out on its own.
6. Close the windows. Put the rose quartz on the sill where the morning sun reaches it.
7. Light your two lights. Set a tealight in the flower glass and light it, then light the Leaves & Linen candle beside it.
8. Write down three things you want to start. Not resolutions, just beginnings: a walk, a call, seeds to sow. Sit for a while, and put the candles out before you leave the room.

What the ritual gives you

It gives the turn of the season a clear moment. This ritual lets you decide: today the windows open, today spring starts in this house.

You can repeat it every year on the first warm weekend, or at the equinox, or at Easter. The flower glass, the lotus and the rose quartz stay with you. The candle and the palo santo can be refilled when they run out.

Why we put it together

We wanted a spring ritual that feels light, not heavy with smoke and symbols.

We chose the Greenman candle because Leaves & Linen smells like the first day you hang washing outside. We chose the flower glass and the blue lotus from Ancient Wisdom because they look like spring even on a grey day. We left out heavy resins and anything that smells of winter. And we use palo santo with respect: it is the holy wood of a real tradition in Ecuador and Peru, so we burn a little, with care, and we do not call it anything it is not.

Safety

• Never leave burning candles or glowing palo santo unattended.
• Carry the lotus slowly with both hands, away from curtains, clothes and hair, and set it on a heat-proof surface afterwards.
• Make sure the palo santo is fully out before you put it away. If in doubt, press the tip into sand.
• The flower glass gets warm with a tealight inside. Stand it on a heat-proof surface.
• Keep flames and smoke away from children and pets.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions