Easter, fountains, water and Spring

The charming small city of Nyon, about a ten-minute drive from here along Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), is the center of our administrative district.  In fact, many traditions that originate there are also celebrated in nearby communes, especially those in the western area of the district, where I live.  One especially fun seasonal practice of this region is decorating every fountain in each commune with Easter decorations, generally flowers, ribbons or other streamers, and eggs.  Sometimes cutouts of bunnies are added.

According to one source, this practice may owe its origin to an old German tradition of celebrating the melting of the snow in the mountains and the return of water to the fountains.  Around here, the decoration is done either by groups of school children or different community associations.  Often, there is a sign by each fountain that tells who was responsible for each.

I don't recall ever seeing fountains decorated for Easter when I lived in Geneva canton.  But it may simply have been that I never really had time to notice.  It is also true that we generally used the Easter break as an occasion to travel and visit other regions so we may have missed seeing decorations because of that.   But now that I am retired and more content to stay in one place while everyone else braves the traffic jams or other travel disruptions, predictable and not, of a peak vacation period, I have a lot more time to pay attention.

I first noticed the decorated fountains in my little commune two years ago.  Here is the one in front of the Maison de Ville (City Hall) from 2008.

And here it is this year.

Here is the largest fountain in the bourg as it was decorated two years ago.

And here is this year's version of the same fountain.

Here is a photo from 2008 of the small fountain that stands at the entrance to the boat landing, where we wait to catch the lake ferries.

I fully intended to get a photo of this year's version, but I got distracted.  That happens all too often and much too easily these days, I'm afraid.  I got distracted because I noticed that the snack bar beside the boat landing was already open.  The opening of the snack bar is an even more definite sign of Spring than the flowers, the leaves turning green and the Easter decorations!