Historical Spring Cleaning

By: Josh Grimes

Everyone has heard of the term “spring cleaning” but where did this national phenomenon come from? Did mom make it up as she opened the windows to let the outside in as she hounded her kids to clean their room? Turns out this “spring cleaning” business has several points of possible origins of practice.

According to research spring cleaning possibly dates back to the Persian New Year that falls on the first day of spring. To this day the practice of “khooned tekouni” by the Iranian people happens before the New Year. Khooned tekouni factually translates to “shaking the house”; during khooned tekouni everything in the house receives a deep clean from the carpet to the ceiling and the doors to the walls. Joining the Iranians is the Scotts on Hogmanay which is December 31^st New Year’s Eve. Scottish practice News Year’s cleaning as this has caught on in Ireland and New Zealand as well along with other countries to the east in North America. Another possible origin of “spring cleaning is in Orthodox nations including Greece as its tradition to clean the house during or prior the first week of lent otherwise known as clean week which corresponds with the Julian New Year on April 1^st.

Other possibilities of “spring cleanings” root can be followed back to ancient Jewish practices of cleansing the house and its’ entirety pre Passover holiday which is in the spring. In honorary remembrance of the Jew’s flight from Egypt after their long captivation; during their eight day long holiday Jews have strict exclusionary rules against anything which has been “leavened”. Leavened food is defined as food made from one of the "five species of grain": wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt, in which leavening or fermentation induced by the presence of water has taken place. Food of this definition is supposed to be ridden from all their homes. For the past 3500 years practicing Jews have conducted a “spring cleaning” of their houses as well as a search for all leavened food on the night the holiday begins.

The last possible explanation dates back to the 19^th century in America before the invention of the vacuum cleaner. March is the best time to dust due to the warm weather; without bugs windows are able to be opened as gusty winds can carry dust from the inside of the house out. As well as dust cleaning products used may generate fumes inside the house giving the winds another job of cleaning the air on the inside. Next time spring cleaning comes about you may want to think what you are actually doing does have its purpose in history as several cultures and religions have their own ten cents to debate about the true roots of traditional spring cleaning.