To understand this, let us first understand the yearly cycle of the seasons. The corn and wheat grow to their mature size. The harvest begins. Fall is the end of the growth cycle. All the produce is harvested and brought into the storehouses.
Winter is the time that the trees are barren.
Nothing is seen growing. The fields lie fallow. The stark winter together with the short days and long dark nights leads one into a feeling of detachment from the growing cycle. Spring is the time of the budding, the time of the beginning of the new growth of the produce. From the midst of the dark, barren winter, when all life seems suspended and no signs of growth are seen, a seed which was planted in the fall and has rotted in the ground begins to sprout.