“It’s more important than ever to remember the ways of our ancestors,” Maria Schumann told the crowd as she launched the “Spring Ritual” on the Circus Field at Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont, on Saturday, April 11, 2026. “And to just take time from the rest of our lives, to take a minute to thank the wind and the clouds and the trees and the snow and the grass and the stones and the birds and to be together to do that, and sing and dance together.”
The ritual was a “participatory pageant”—all invited to join in, no audience—on a brisk, sunny day. It aimed to “recreate and reimagine ancient spring rituals to honor and bless the sun, the animals, plants, and earth that sustain us. Through song and silence, movement and stillness, we will ban everything bad and welcome in the spring. We’ll sing powerful and beautiful traditional Eastern European songs to call in the birds and the spring. We will end with a celebratory picnic of sourdough crepes, round and yellow like the sun. Join us as we enact a ritual of beauty and hope in defiance of the cold and bloodthirsty logic of the ruling class and the bleakness of the current moment!”
Schumann called in the cardinal directions—“North for Mother Earth” and so on. The daughter of Bread and Puppet co-founder Peter Schumann, Maria is “a farmer, singer and folklorist from Greensboro Vermont. She has been creating seasonal outdoor, song based, community ceremonies for the last 15 years, drawing inspiration from folk traditions and her Bread and Puppet childhood.” (“Rituals at Bread and Puppet are not Bread and Puppet productions,” the theater’s website explains.)
Schumann led the crowd in singing a duck song as the crowd circled around and performers carried a large white bird puppet into the ring. Then winter’s bears and the white-clad winter queen battled red-clad performers of spring and sun.
Performers led the crowd up the hill to the rolling pageant field to call in the birds—flipping paper birds into the air from a sheet. Three performers ran a big white bird puppet across the field. The crowd followed the white bird up the hill and into the Pine Forest, to the Memorial Village of shrines and simple shacks within.
After a while, performers and musicians formed lines, slowly winding through the trees, toward a “moment of resistance” at a lean-to filled with signs: “Iran,” “Palestine,” “Lebanon,” “For those who were learning,” “For those who were home,” “For those who were living,” “For those who are fighting.” Musicians played and people sang, then individuals shouted: “No! No! No!”
Musicians and performers waving flags painted with red poppies led the crowd out of the trees and back down the hill, first stopping to plant seeds, then down to an effigy made of branches topped with angry, crying cardboard masks. A performer lit it aflame with a torch, saying: “Let it represent all the evil, all the pain, all the death, the hatred.”
After it burned to the ground, people joined hands and danced in a ring around the waning fire as they sang: “The light shines in the darkness.” Then the crowd was offered crepes and bread and garlic aioli at the Bread House.
