Spring Break History
The Spring Break we know and love today, which is invariably associated with sun, sand, bikinis, booze and questionable romances isn’t a modern invention.
In fact, our ancestors have celebrated the return of Spring for thousands of years and in many of the same ways that rowdy college students do today.
Follow along for a brief recap on the history and traditions of this iconic holiday.
Spring Break in Ye Olden Times
Written records show that Spring Break can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, if not earlier. Spring was considered to be the season of fertility, and to celebrate its return, men and women (who were still in their prime mating years) would engage in all sorts of pagan rituals, usually involving Dionysus or Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of Wine.
As you can imagine, days of drinking and dancing often led to the enjoyment of other earthly pleasures. Christianity later tried, unsuccessfully, to stop such rituals and if you’ve been to any Spring Break celebrations recently, it’s pretty clear that the spirit of Dionysus and Bacchus lives on in young people today!
Spring Break in Modern Times
Spring Break in the United States can be traced back to 1936 when the swim coach of Colgate University decided to take the team down to Fort Lauderdale, where they could practice at the Casino Pool, the first Olympic sized swimming pool ever built in Florida.
The trip was such a hit with the students that he brought them all back the following year and by 1961, over 50,000 college students were making the trip each year to enjoy all of the sun, sand and beachesthat Fort Lauderdale had to offer. Daytona Beach also became a popular Spring Break destination in the 1960s after a massive advertising campaign, and by the end of the decade, over 100,000 students made it their destination of choice each year.
In the 1970s, alcohol, drugs and “free love” became part and parcel of the rapidly evolving Spring Break culture, leaving many cities like Fort Lauderdale second guessing their role as a destination for party goers. When tens of thousands of students descended on the city each year, they flooded the local economy with millions of dollars, but they also caused plenty of damage and trouble as well, which put a serious dent in the city’s coffers.
By the late 1990s, Spring Break continued to grow in popularity and expand to other destinations like Panama City, Cancun, and Jamaica, many of which attract crowds of half a million college students or more each year.
Spring Break Today
Today Spring Break has become a right-of-passage of sorts for college students and continues to evolve, with more exotic and international locations becoming popular destinations for crowds eager to enjoy the all night parties and sandy beaches that are associated with this iconic holiday.
And yet despite its evolution, Spring Break still resembles the celebrations carried out by our ancestors thousands of years ago – some things really never change!