# When did Spring Break become a thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287 "2017-03-03T13:52:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/1 "2017-03-03T13:52:40Z")
I graduated from high school in 1966. Prior to that I attended six different schools all over the country, including my final high school. We didn’t have a week of Spring Break at any of those schools. We got Good Friday off, even in public school, so that amounted to a three-day weekend, but that was it. When did Spring Break become virtually universal and when did it become synonymous with teen/young adult abandon and debauchery, preferably involving bikinis and salt water? Did you grow up with or without Spring Break? \*ETA: Couldn’t find an earlier thread on this. \* ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/2 "2017-03-03T13:59:53Z")
I was in high school in the early 80s. We had one spring break in March. What’s odd to me is that my kids had two breaks- Feb and April break. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/3 "2017-03-03T14:12:06Z")
I know nothing of American College, but I would speculate whenever it was women first attended universities. 1860s - 80s ? ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/4 "2017-03-03T14:21:53Z")
[Where the Boys Are](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054469/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) came out in 1960, so it was a thing back then. My memory is that it blew up in the early 1980s. My impression is that mainly wealthier people went to spring break in the 1960s. By the 1980s, a much larger and more diverse group of people went on spring break. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/5 "2017-03-03T14:42:43Z")
I went to school in the 50s and 60s. We always had a week of “Easter vacation”, but it was never anything more than a week off from school. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/6 "2017-03-03T14:46:46Z")
When I was in University in the '80s, it was called suicide week. The legend was that “they” did some statistical analysis to find out which week had the most student suicides and then gave the students that week off. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/7 "2017-03-03T15:01:09Z")
I certainly didn’t have any in the 50s. During the years 1982-84, I sat on the local school board (as a non-voting parent rep) and in one of those years they introduced a spring break in response to parental pressure. It meant having to start the school year in the week before Labor Day in order to have the required number of teaching days, a 2 week Christmas break, and finish by June 23 (June 24 is the Quebec National holiday and has always ended the school year). I cannot recall, but I think they have had it at McGill for as long as I have been here (since 1968). Before that I think U. Illinois did too. But I don’t recall that it was a big thing to go to Florida and carouse. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/8 "2017-03-03T15:07:17Z")
For colleges, I would guess maybe post WW II into the mid-50s as you had more students and more disposable income. For something like High Schools I would think that it began more in northern schools where you often had a bank of “snow make-up days” scheduled around the spring. But that is a guess at best. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/9 "2017-03-03T15:29:32Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > I know nothing of American College, but I would speculate whenever it was women first attended universities. 1860s - 80s ? Can’t quite follow your reasoning here. 😕 I certainly remember the movie _Where the Boys Are_, and I attended my first three years of elementary school in California, but we didn’t have Spring Break. Maybe it started out in college (although I don’t remember having one in college–in Texas-- either, 1966-1970), and then eventually migrated to high school and elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/10 "2017-03-03T15:50:13Z")
Spring Break was already a thing in the mid-1970s. I know, because a lot of people from my dorm went. I wasn’t invited (sniff), and had no idea what was going on. So it was something that, I think, existed prior to that (as noted, it’s a “thing” in 1960 with _Where the Boys Are_, but I suspect it was more of a regional thing back then, with the idea of parties of students going together to Florida or some other attainable resort over the spring holiday slowly spreading further north as travel became cheaper and quicker. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/11 "2017-03-03T15:51:44Z")
I think the OP is talking about spring break for **elementary/high school** students, not college “spring break”. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/12 "2017-03-03T15:52:00Z")
1970s in South Cackalacky. No spring break. I think we might have gotten Good Friday off, but that was the closest to a spring break we had. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/13 "2017-03-03T16:37:56Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I graduated from high school in 1966. So did I. No such thing as spring break back then. The first time I remember hearing anything about spring break was in the 70s. Next thing I know, high schools are going on spring break. We got cheated, **ThelmaLou!** ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/14 "2017-03-03T16:48:06Z")
I can only speak to colleges and Universities. Article in the Chicago Tribune in 1953. > [@](#): > > Tho there is considerable mystery as to why it became a king size Midwestern collegiate fad to light out for Fort Lauderdale the minute exams were ended and the spring break began there is no controversy as to which was the student group that first took up the notion and developed it in a big way. > It was Ohio State.; Four years ago small groups of Buckeyes, usually sorority and fraternity groups, began the safari. This year Ohio was represented by a contingent of 2,000. I’ll look for evidence of when Public High schools got into the mix. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/15 "2017-03-03T17:10:06Z")
In high school (late 70s) we had an Easter break, which I think was basically just a long weekend, not a full week. College Spring Break was always a full week break in mid-March. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/16 "2017-03-03T17:43:23Z")
Graduated high school in 1973. We always had a week off for “Easter Vacation.” Now, 40 some odd years later, the school I teach at has a 2-week “Spring Break” that usually coincides with Easter, but not always. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/17 "2017-03-03T17:43:38Z")
well historically I was always told that spting/easter break was given for the kids to be able to help with the spring planting … just like summer was given to help with the farming I know in the south at one time the kids had a week or two off of either half days or days off to help with the cotton harvest cause some of the relatives thought theeyed go down and see if they could make some extra money…they did but said never again because cotton picking was worse than corn shucking … ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/18 "2017-03-03T18:15:37Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > [Where the Boys Are](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054469/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) came out in 1960, so it was a thing back then. > > My memory is that it blew up in the early 1980s. My impression is that mainly wealthier people went to spring break in the 1960s. By the 1980s, a much larger and more diverse group of people went on spring break. Airline deregulation made it cheaper to fly to Mexico or Florida for American college kids. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/19 "2017-03-03T18:33:09Z")
When I was in elementary school (Southern California, 1970s), we had a full week of Easter vacation. It was always tied to the week before Easter, even though it was a public school. The local Catholic school always got the week after Easter off, as they had to be at school for Holy Week. Now my kids (public school) get Spring Break, which is always the first full week of April, regardless of Easter’s timing. I was at UCLA in the mid-1980s, and Spring Break (the week between Winter and Spring quarters) was a thing for road trips then. Every year the TV news had breathless coverage of all the debauchery in Palm Springs, which only made it more attractive. After the Palm Springs locals shut it down, Tijuana and San Felipe in Baja became the go-to spots for California college students. Still within driving distance. ---
**Author:** ![Nauplius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nauplius/32/51_2.png) [@Nauplius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nauplius)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287/20 "2017-03-03T18:38:01Z")
[A Brief History of Spring Break](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1888317,00.html) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-spring-break-become-a-thing/781287.md?page=2)