Spring break

Spring break, known variously as Easter vacation, Easter holiday, Easter break, spring vacation, mid-term break, study week, reading week, reading period, Easter week or March break, is a vacation period including Easter holidays in early Northern Hemisphere spring at universities and schools, which has been observed in Europe since the late 19th century, was introduced during the 1930s in the US, and is observed in many other countries.
Spring break is frequently associated with extensive gatherings and riotous partying in warm climate locations, attended regardless of participants' educational standings.
By country
Asia
Japan
In Japan, the spring break starts with the end of the academic year in late March and ends around April 7 with the beginning of a new academic year.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong follows the British tradition of an Easter break of about one and a half weeks.
Iran
In Iran, spring break starts at Nowruz and ends on Sizdah Bedar, All Iranians have the same spring break.
Macau
Macau follows the Portuguese tradition of Easter break.
South Korea
In South Korea, the spring break originally lasted for two weeks in February with the new school year starting afterwards in March. However, due to a change in the academic calendar in 2015, the spring break was changed to a 1-week break in the first week of May, around Children's Day (although some schools still keep it in February).
Colleges only take the Children's Day itself off.
Taiwan
In Taiwan, spring break usually refers to the consecutive days off of Tomb Sweeping Day and Children's Day.
UAE (United Arab Emirates)
In UAE, spring break is usually two or three weeks long from late March to early/middle of April. It usually depends on the school or the emirate.
Europe
Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, only primary and secondary school students have a spring break. The break is one week long and the date of the break differs from county to county to avoid overcrowding of the break destinations in the Czech Republic (Czechs usually travel to the mountains to ski there). The counties are divided into six groups, each group containing counties evenly distributed across the country. The first group starts the holiday on the first Monday of February, the last group starts the holiday five weeks later (usually in early March). The last group of counties becomes the first one to have the spring break the next year.
Georgia
Before 2017, the spring break in Georgia was typically an Easter holiday, lasting from Thursday to Tuesday in Holy Week. In 2017 Minister of Education and Science Aleksandre Jejelava instead set the period from March 8 to 15 as a holiday for those in education, from preschool to university.
Germany
In Germany, universities typically schedule a semester break of five to eight weeks around March. The Whitsun (Pentecost) holidays around late May or early June are also considered a spring break.
Greece
In Greece, spring break takes place during Holy Week and the week following.
Lithuania
In Lithuania, spring break (called Easter holidays or spring holidays) takes place one week before Easter and one day after it (as it is the second day of Easter), all school students have this vacation. Primary school students have another week of holidays after Easter.
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, a week-long break is given to high school students and students in higher education in the early stages of spring (February-March). There are regional differences between mostly the north and south of the country in when this break takes place, because of carnival, which is mostly celebrated in the southern parts of The Netherlands.
Portugal
In Portugal, spring break is mostly known as "Easter Holidays" and it gives two weeks to all students around the country.
Russia
Before 1917 there was an Easter Break in schools. In the Soviet Union, spring break was always from March 24 to 31. Now, many schools in Russia still have the spring break, but the exact date is decided by the school itself. In the majority of cases it is set in the middle of April. Also, the public holidays in May, connected with Labour day and Victory day, can be an accurate equivalent of the spring break.
Slovakia
Slovakia gives a week-long break to its elementary school and secondary school students in the months of February and March. Instead of vacationing in warm weather destinations, the Slovaks mostly associate spring breaks with skiing. The break is one week long and the date of the break differs from region to region to avoid overcrowding of the break destinations in the Slovak Republic. The regions are divided into three groups, the first group starts the holiday on the end of February, the last group starts the holiday two weeks later (in early March).
There is also another shorter Easter break from Holy Thursday to the following Tuesday.
Spain
In Spain, there is no spring break as such; Holy Week is celebrated, and students usually have holidays during these days.
United Kingdom
The Easter break in the United Kingdom is from two to three weeks around Easter (depending on the local council and school policy) for primary and secondary schools, and for two to four weeks for university students. Good Friday and Easter Monday (except in Scotland) are bank holidays, making a four-day long weekend for many adults.
North America
Canada
Canadian provinces give a one or two-week-long break to its elementary school and secondary school students in the month of March, with the time varying from province to province; New Brunswick and Quebec, for example, place their March breaks during the first week of March; Nova Scotia, and British Columbia schedule theirs during the second or third week; the break in Alberta and Manitoba usually occurs in the last week of March. In Canada, spring Break for post-secondary students is called 'reading week' or 'reading break,' depending on the duration. However, the formal title of Mid-term Break has been the preferred generic term. Reading Week in Canada usually occurs in the month of February, usually coinciding with Family Day.
In primary and secondary school, this break is called 'March break' and in university/college it is usually 'reading week.' Neither example is commonly associated with the party culture of American spring break.
Jamaica
In Jamaica, the spring break starts in the first week of Good Friday. The break may range from one week to two weeks, often two. This break starts depending on which month the Easter holiday begins, March or April.
Mexico
In Mexico, spring break takes place during the Holy Week and the one after it.
United States
In the mid-1930s, a swimming coach from Colgate University decided to take his team down to Florida for some early training at a brand-new Olympic-size pool in sunny Fort Lauderdale. The idea clicked with other college swim coaches and soon the spring training migration became an annual tradition for swimmers nationwide. Now, spring break is an academic tradition in various mostly western countries that is scheduled for different periods depending on the state and sometimes the region.
In the United States, spring break at universities, colleges, and many K-12 school systems can take place from March to April, depending on term dates and when Easter holiday falls. Spring break is usually a week or two long, although some schools schedule it for the last week of March, with separate days off for the Easter holiday.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
In Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, it takes place during Easter; schoolchildren have a week off, and teaching staff typically three days.
South America
Colombia
In Colombia, the Easter break is Holy Week and the following week, in the southern hemisphere autumn.
Chile
In Chile, many schools and universities take vacations in the middle of September in the southern hemisphere spring, coinciding with the celebration of the country's Patriotic Holidays.
Spring break festivals
Large annual spring break festivities take place in various countries, often in the form of music festivals and joined by special nightclub parties, beach activities and accommodation offers. People on the Easter break may travel to other countries.
Pacific
The South Pacific takes spring break in November. Some tour companies charter out entire island resorts for the festivities.
Fiji
Fiji
Cook Islands
Rarotonga
Europe
European party destinations are increasingly becoming popular for international spring break guests. Tour agencies have cited the lower drinking ages in these places and that even then, they are rarely enforced. Some tour companies put on special chartered flights for spring break at discounted rates.
Croatia
Novalja (Zrće Beach)
Germany
Pouch
Rugia (Binz/Prora) and Usedom islands (Kaiser Spa)
Greece
Mykonos
Hungary
Siófok (Lake Balaton)
Italy
Rimini
Spain
Ibiza
Lloret de Mar
Magaluf (Mallorca)
Salou
North America
Caribbean
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Nassau, Bahamas
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Mexico
Acapulco
Cancún
Cabo San Lucas
United States
In the US, many people take the holiday off. The holiday is celebrated near Easter, and many families hold easter egg hunts, or celebrate with Easter activities.
Panama City Beach, Florida
Starting in the late '90s, Panama City Beach began advertising the destination hoping to attract crowds that had formerly gone to Fort Lauderdale and then Daytona Beach before those communities enacted restrictions. From 2010 to 2016 an estimated 300,000 students traveled to the destination. The spawn of social media and digital marketing helped boost the beach town into a student mecca during March. Following well publicized shootings and a gang rape in 2015, several new ordinances were put into effect prohibiting drinking on the beach and establishing a bar closing time of 2 am. Central Time. Reports showed a drop in Panama City Beach's spring break turnout in March 2016 followed by increased family tourism in April 2016. Both are attributed to the new ordinances by the Bay County Community Development Corporation (CDC).
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale's reputation as a spring break destination for college students started when the Colgate University men's swim team arrived to practice there over Christmas break in 1934. Attracting approximately 20,000 college students in the 1950s, spring break was still known as 'Spring vacation' and was a relatively low key affair. This began to change when Glendon Swarthout's novel, Where the Boys Are was published in 1960, effectively ushering in modern spring break. Swarthout's 1960 novel was quickly made into a movie of the same title later that year, Where the Boys Are, in which college girls met boys while on spring break there. The number of visiting college students immediately jumped to over 50,000. By the early 1980s, Ft. Lauderdale was attracting between 250,000 and 350,000 college students per year during spring break. Residents of the Fort Lauderdale area became so upset at the damage done by college students that the local government passed laws restricting parties in 1985. At the same time, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was enacted in the United States, requiring that Florida raise the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21 and inspiring many underage college vacationers to travel to other competing locations in the United States for spring break. By 1989, the number of college students traveling to Fort Lauderdale fell to 20,000, a far cry from the 350,000 who went four years prior.
South Padre Island, Texas
In the early 1980s, South Padre Island became the first location outside of Florida to draw a large number of college students for spring break. With only a few thousand residents, South Padre Island has consistently drawn between 80,000 and 120,000 spring breakers for the last 30 years.
Corporate marketing
It is common for major brands that cater to the youth market, such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, MTV, and branches of the United States Armed Forces, to market at spring break destinations.
See also
Girls Gone Wild (franchise)
Schoolies week
Senior Week
Wet T-shirt contest
References
External links
Types of secular holidays
Spring (season)
Student culture
Types of tourism