In a month defined by rebirth, cultural rituals reveal how differently societies connect joy, renewal and the role of intoxication
Farnaz Abdolmaleki (she/her) // Contributor
Anna Israfilova (she/her) // Illustrator
March is a month full of big cultural celebrations marking the arrival of bright joy, rebirth and Spring. Holi—the Hindu festival of colours—Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, Hanami—the Japanese cherry blossom festival—and St. Patrick’s Day all happen within the same month. Although their histories and traditions are vastly different, these celebrations centre around new beginnings and human relationships, whether that means reconnecting with family, gathering in public spaces or welcoming spring. However some people cannot distinguish festivity from excess. In many modern contexts, festivity is increasingly tied to accessibility and consumption, particularly through alcohol and intoxication.
In the West, St. Patrick’s Day has taken on a cultural acronym for approved intoxication. Pubs open early, bar crawlers fill the streets and engagement is measured not by presence, but by drinking. A student mentioned that growing up around the holiday was slowly changing its importance. As a child, the student said it included parades, face painting and being hoisted up on shoulders to watch marching bands. As a teenager, it meant fake IDs and finding personal limits be that through embarrassment or regret. As an adult, it has turned into something calculatedly avoided.
St. Patrick’s Day can be spent in different ways depending on people’s economic positions. Some ultimately opt not to go to the occasion. One of the students who attended explained that the event used to involve excitement and a sense of community, but they felt uncomfortable about the notion that they needed to numb themselves to enjoy it.
Intoxication does a duty as a condition for participation in certain celebratory environments. Regeneration is approached very differently in other springtime customs. Nowruz is marked by a focus on preparation and presentness. In the weeks leading up to the spring equinox, houses are cleaned completely as part of a hygienic and symbolic practice known as khāneh-tekānī (Persian: خانهتکانی, literal translation: ‘shaking the house’).
Central to the celebration is the haft-sin table (Persian: هفتسین), which is the ceremonial arrangement of seven symbolic items traditionally associated with the Persian letters. There is also a commonly repeated origin story that refers to an earlier haft-sin tradition, sometimes described as including items such as sharāb (Persian: شراب, translation: wine), though scholars note that the historical origins of the table are debated, not definitively established.
Regardless of origin, each element of the haft-sin carries symbolic meaning. Items such as sib (Persian: سیب, translation: apples), sekkeh (Persian: سکه, translation: coins), sir (Persian: سیر, translation: garlic), serkeh (Persian: سرکه, translation: vinegar), samanu (Persian: سمنو, translation: wheat pudding), senjed (Persian: سنجد, translation: oleaster fruit or olives), sabzeh (Persian: سبزه, translation: sprouts) and somāq (Persian: سماق, translation: somāq) represent virtues including health, patience, prosperity and rebirth. Children often participate actively in these rituals, reveling fully in the festivities while learning the significance of each symbol.
Intoxication is almost nonexistent during Nowruz celebrations. The moment of the new year is understood as something that must be intentionally experienced, a transition that is visibly shared by everyone at once, no matter their financial or social standing. Joy comes from shared presence rather than wealth.
In a similar vein, there is a large emphasis on attentiveness in the Japanese ritual of Hanami. Hanami is to watch cherry blossoms bloom and then fall after a short period. In tranquil settings, people gather beneath the trees to sit quietly, talk and observe the fresh blooms. “The focus lies in observing and listening carefully. Hanami is not a celebration,” a participant notes, “We are reminded that beauty is transient and must be enjoyed as long as it lasts.”
So, in the case of Hanami and Nowruz, getting intoxicated would ruin the whole point of the gathering. The central idea is not to add to emotional experience or to muddy things up, but to keep an eye on something passing.
Holi is somewhere between those two approaches. Holi is commonly described as fun and over the top, mixing play and physical intimacy in short bursts. Colour is thrown, people bump into each other and joy is intensely present and embodied. Substances are a huge part of that experience in some situations.
The same festival can be a religious ceremony, family celebration or public one with excess, depending on the social and cultural context. Children ran through the lively streets, and parents who had been confined in earlier years of this celebration appeared joyous.
For a lot of people, Holi shows that an incarnate celebration can feel large and communal without drunkenness. However, the festival is traditionally celebrated in India with bhang—a traditional drink derived from cannabis leaves made into a paste—which is often associated with Lord Shiva. It was said that this drink was used in order to reach a meditative state, and a sense of calm during this renewal.
In many cultures, intoxication acts as a form of release from social and emotional constraints, because in this sense intoxication is a brief respite. Others see abstaining as a respectful act that will let them have fuller enjoyment of the times of regeneration and change. Neither is the right or wrong way; they both simply affect how relationships blossom and who participates.
The attitudes surrounding these celebrations change as people grow old and their views change. Many of the students said they had started to move out of parties full of alcohol over the past few years; not out of a desire to abandon the immoral, but in part, because it no longer seemed to align with the way they liked to celebrate. For others, moderation or abstinence has been shown to foster a deeper sense of camaraderie than alcohol. These modifications imply that celebration is fluid, it changes as identity changes: both personal and collective.
This convergence of celebrations in March illustrates how different cultures celebrate the concept of rebirth. Everyone comes together to celebrate Spring in the same month, whether that is through preparation, play, drinking and observation. Each approach represents a different understanding of what happiness takes and what being rejuvenated is. Instead of creating one definition of celebration, such gatherings point to the extent to which cultural assumptions shape the nexus between substances, community and starting over.