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Elbow Grease + Quick Wit = Neat Reinterpretation
Having a spouse announce, "Let's do some spring cleaning this weekend!" should be grounds for divorce, as far as this mother of young kids is concerned. Who came up with the idea of spring cleaning, anyway? Because whoever did wasn't raising a family, that's for sure.
Apparently, there isn't a clear-cut answer about how spring cleaning began since many speculations, legends and superstitions surround its roots.
Some historians think the tradition began with the ritual cleansing for Passover. In their flight from slavery in ancient Egypt, Jews did not have time for bread to rise (I've had to pack in a hurry, too, though not under that type of duress) and were commanded by God to bake only unleavened bread, or matzo. In observance of this biblical event, Jews scour their homes to remove all traces of leavened bread. Is this sacred practice (even older than some leftovers in my refrigerator) the basis for spring cleaning?
Other authorities credit the Chinese. A top-to-bottom cleaning of the home right before the Chinese New Year drives out evil spirits, misfortune, and bad luck, according to beliefs that date thousands of years. The Chinese won't sweep, dust or take out the trash on the first day after the New Year in order to retain the good luck. But if you've ever methodically cleaned a home, you know the respite is possibly from sheer exhaustion. Who has the t strength left to lift even a feather duster?
More research cites early 1 9"'century Americans as influencing spring cleaning; as winter wound down, they waited until spring to spruce up by opening the windows to allow the high March winds to blow out the dust. (This is why I love history: 1 just discovered an excuse to dust only once a year.) But then history reveals that Iowan Daniel Hess patented what carne to be the vacuum in 1 860 and since then we've...