The vernal equinox took place two weeks ago, heralding the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, despite continued wintry conditions in a few places. As the sunlight becomes more prevalent, people, plants, and animals are beginning to emerge from their winter modes to step outside, bloom, and otherwise welcome the sunshine. These photos show festivals and glimpses of the new season from around the world, as we shake off the winter and greet the spring.
Signs of Spring
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Read moreA cat rests in a cherry blossom tree on a spring day in a Tokyo park on March 30, 2017. #
Toru Hanai / Reuters -
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Read moreA tourist poses for a picture at Heerstrasse flanked by pink cherry tree blossoms on Cherry Blossom Avenue in downtown Bonn, Germany, on April 2, 2017. #
Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters -
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Read moreA woman plays with a child among daffodils in St James Park in London, England, on March 11, 2017. #
Neil Hall / Reuters -
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Read moreHillsides and pastures, covered in a carpet of wildflowers, are drawing thousands of visitors this spring to Carrizo Plain, home to thousands of migratory birds and the largest alkali wetlands in the state, on March 28, 2017, in Carrizo Plain National Monument, California. The valley is experiencing an epic wildflower "superbloom" of golden fields, tidy tips, tickweed, fiddleheads, lupine, and hillside daisies. #
George Rose / Getty -
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Read moreA seven-spot ladybird rests on a Hungarian anemone in the Kek-kallo valley, near Bagamer, about 260 km east of Budapest, Hungary, on March 30, 2017. #
Zsolt Czegledi / MTI via AP -
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Read moreWild geese fly during a sunset in the sky above the village of Lavryshevo, Belarus, on April 1, 2017. #
Sergei Grits / AP -
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Read moreChias and California poppies, which will remain closed until warmed by direct sunlight, bloom after prolonged record drought gave way to heavy winter rains, causing one of the biggest wildflower blooms in years on March 16, 2017, at Diamond Valley Lake, near Hemet, California. #
David McNew / Getty -
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Read morePeople walk among flowers after prolonged record drought gave way to heavy winter rains, causing one of the biggest wildflower blooms in years on March 16, 2017, at Diamond Valley Lake, California. #
David McNew / Getty -
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Read morePeople look at cherry blossoms in almost full bloom in Tokyo, Japan, on April 4, 2017. #
Issei Kato / Reuters -
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Read moreThree baby rabbits look out of their burrow in a field in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 27, 2017. #
Michael Probst / AP -
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Read morePeople walk along the Tidal Basin, visiting of what is left of the cherry blossoms in Washington on April 2, 2017. This year's bloom was different from in the past because cold weather killed half of the blossoms on the Yoshino cherry trees just as they were reaching their peak. #
Jose Luis Magana / AP -
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Read moreVisitors walk among the poppy bloom at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancaster, California, on March 19, 2017. Rain-fed wildflowers have been sprouting from California's desert sands after lying dormant for years, producing a spectacular display that has been drawing record crowds and traffic jams to desert towns. #
Richard Vogel / AP -
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Read moreBudding tree blossoms are encased in ice during a winter storm in Annapolis, Maryland, on March 14, 2017. #
Carolyn Kaster / AP -
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Read moreVisitors pose for photos as they visit a 200-meter-long corridor covered with lavender flowers in Shenyang, China, on April 4, 2017. #
AFP / Getty -
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Read moreA massive spring wildflower bloom in Lake Elsinore, California, on March 14, 2017. #
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters -
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Read moreIraqi Kurds watch as fireworks light the sky in the town of Akra, 500 kilometers north of Baghdad, on March 20, 2017, during the Noruz spring festival celebrations. The Persian New Year is an ancient Zoroastrian tradition celebrated by Iranians and Kurds that coincides with the vernal (spring) equinox, and is calculated by the solar calendar. #
Safin Hamed / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreHillsides and pastures covered in a carpet of golden wildflowers in Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, on March 28, 2017. #
George Rose / Getty -
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Read moreTourists take in the sun on a lawn with the Invalides War Museum in the background on a sunny day in Paris, France, on March 30, 2017. #
Francois Mori / AP -
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Read moreA woman takes a photo during a sunset at a lake on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, on April 2, 2017. #
Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters -
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Read moreA butterfly flies over a flowers in the forest near Logoisk, Belarus, on April 4, 2017, during a sunny spring day. #
Sergei Grits / AP -
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Read moreA woman takes a close look at the blossoms of a cherry tree during springlike temperatures in Erfurt, Germany, on March 26, 2017. #
Jens Meyer / AP -
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Read moreA boat sails on Lake Lucerne in Brunnen, Switzerland, on March 14, 2017. #
Denis Balibouse / Reuters -
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Read moreEwes and lambs on Gwndwnwal Farm during lambing season on March 2, 2017, in Brecon, Wales. Gwndwnwal Farm is a family-run livestock farm in Brecon, South East Wales. The Brute Family are expecting to lamb 600 ewes this season producing more than 1,000 young. #
Chris Jackson / Getty -
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Read moreCanterbury bells bloom after prolonged record drought gave way to heavy winter rains at Diamond Valley Lake, near Hemet, California, on March 16, 2017. #
David McNew / Getty -
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Read moreEve, age 3, plays among spring blooms ahead of the Easter Festival at Kew Gardens in west London, on March 30, 2017. #
Toby Melville / Reuters -
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Read moreVisitors enjoy the cherry blossoms at the Yuyuantan Park during spring festival in Beijing, China, on March 29, 2017. #
Andy Wong / AP -
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Read moreA family celebrating the spring equinox raises their hands toward the sun atop the Pyramid of the Sun at the Teotihuacan archaeological site in Mexico, on March 21, 2017. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP
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