What is spring break

The first group usually begins their spring vacation on the first Monday of February while the last group begins five weeks later, mostly in early March. In Germany , it is common for universities to break for spring for about 5 to 8 weeks in March. Pentecost holidays observed during late March or early June are also part of spring.

In Portugal , spring break is referred to as Easter Holiday and is celebrated by all students for two weeks. In Russia , Easter Break has been observed from as early as Usually, individual schools determine the dates for this vacation but it usually falls in mid-April. In Spain , the Easter Break is not observed. However, schools are closed during the Holy Week which occurs during the last week of Lent, coinciding with Easter break.

In Canada , elementary schools and secondary schools enjoy a one or two week break during the month of March. However, the date and times vary from one province to the next. In the U. See below:. South Padre Island as mentioned is the biggest March 6th to the 28th. Cancun spring break has dates from February 20th as well as into April if you have an odd week — go there.

Text us if you have questions or call us Ambrose University March 19th to March 26th St. Thomas University — St. This was a few years after the number-one disco hit "Le Freak" and Rick James' "Superfreak" was still big, so the organizers decided to call their picnic gathering Freaknik. What started as a small get-together with burgers, hot dogs and a boom box would explode over the next decade into THE Spring Break destination for black college students and high school students, and anyone else who felt like coming.

By , hundreds of thousands of young black people would cruise into Atlanta for Freaknik, clogging traffic day and night for a multi-day street party. Freaknik cemented Atlanta as a Mecca of black culture, but the party fizzled out around , as the mayor cracked down hard on cruising. Gone are the heydays of MTV and Freaknik, but is spring break still a big deal for today's college kids?

Numbers are hard to come by, but as recently as , Panama City Beach was drawing , people a year to its sugary white minus the barf-stains shores. Then, after a particular nasty Spring Break in , Panama City officials voted to ban all alcohol consumption on the beach, which has apparently drained the life out of the party. What's clear is that college students today have a lot more choices for how they want to spend their spring break. The beaches are definitely still popular -- according to a survey, 50 percent of college students planned to go somewhere "warm" for spring break -- but so are trips that emphasize meaning over mayhem.

In , Habitat for Humanity became one of the first volunteer organizations to offer an "Alternative Spring Break" to college kids looking to give back over vacation. Since then, more than , students have participated in Habitat's Collegiate Challenge , including 7, in , according to a Habitat spokesperson.

Today there are hundreds of alternative spring break chapters at colleges and universities across the United States. Kelly Esenther is a sophomore psychology major at Michigan State University where she's the education coordinator for Alternative Spartan Breaks , which organizes 17 different trips each year for activities like trail construction or HIV advocacy. In an email, Esenther says that more than MSU students sign up each year, even though they don't know where they're going until they're accepted into the program.

For them, it's about the experience, not the destination. Arrests for underage drinking, public intoxication and fighting are so common during spring break that some police departments set up temporary jails on the beach , what one officer described as "two dog kennels with rubber flooring.

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Other Holidays.