A Springtime Story
by Odds Bodkin
You and your child stroll outside. The air is warm today. Gentle breezes waft by. Daffodils and cherry blossoms fill the world with color.
What if your child looks up at you and asks: "Where did winter go?"
How will you answer?
If your child is age ten or over, information on the tilted axis of Earth's orbit and more sunlight on the Northern Hemisphere is a good option.
But if your child is young and still lives safely in the world of stories and make believe, try answering this way: "Persephone (pronounced like, "Stephanie") has returned to her mother once again."
Who?"
"Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth. Do you want to hear the story?"
And if your child nods yes, you can tell this quick tale.
Persephone was a lovely young goddess who lived in ancient Greece. Her mother, Demeter the earth goddess, made plants grow -- the grapes, the wheat, the trees -- all across the world.
One day, as Persephone played alone in a field of flowers, the ground opened with a rumble and out came a chariot drawn by dark horses. In it rode Hades, god of the Underworld. He captured Persephone and took her to the Underworld to be his wife.
As the earth closed up behind them, Persephone's belt fell to the earth. When she didn't come home, her mother, Demeter, searched everywhere for her. As months passed, Demeter grew so sad she forgot to make things grow. The warm, green earth turned brown and cold. Earth's first winter came.
One day a shepherd gave Demeter a belt he'd found in a meadow, near an opening to the Underworld. Demeter guessed what had happened. She went to Zeus, King of the Gods, and told him that if he didn't tell Hades to let Persephone go, the earth would stay brown, cold and lifeless forever.
Zeus agreed and told Hades he must free Persephone. Demeter went to fetch her, but quickly discovered something terrible had happened. Persephone had eaten a few pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld.
According to the law, if a person ate pomegranate seeds, she could not leave the Underworld.
Demeter refused to make anything grow, and so the gods made an arrangement: for every seed Persephone had eaten, she must spend one month a year below ground with Hades.
Demeter agreed. Persephone returned to the earth with her mother and Demeter's happiness returned. The earth flowered and grew warm again. The gentle months of spring and summer passed.
But then, because of the pomegranate seeds, Persephone had to visit Hades. Demeter grew sad without her daughter. Leaves fell from the trees. Another winter returned, cold and lifeless.
So according to the old storytellers of Greece, winter melts away as Demeter and Persephone run together in the meadows each spring -- when a happy mother once again sings the ancient song of life.
