Hail Priapus!!

Every year, in March, many people in the towns of Komaki and Kawasaki in Japan, celebrate virility and fertility.  They call their festivities "Kanamara Matsuri" or "Hounen Matsuri."  The symbol they have chosen to represent virility and fertility is a erect male penis.  They carve a huge phallus out of cedar wood in Komaki and many older men carry the statue around town in a parade which ends at a Shinto Temple. The parade features numerous representations of the male reproductive organ. 

People smile and laugh, drink some beer and saki, and join in the fun. People touch the big fellow for good luck.  Everyone hopes for good crops, many more farm animals, prosperity, marital harmony, and good fun in the bedroom. 

Hip, hip horray ... help it Rise Up today.  Hail Priapus!  Pour some milk over the Linga.  Offer libations to Dionysus.  Party hardy during the Spring Break Holiday.  Three cheers for Lust and Love!

A few gardeners continue to acknowledge Priapus in the West:

 

"Priapus is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, part of the Canterbury Tales. During a description of a garden that the protagonist, Januarie, creates, Priapus is invoked in his form as God of gardens:

Ne Priapus ne myghte nat suffise,
Though he be God of gardyns, for to telle
The beautee of the gardyn and the welle,
That stood under a laurer alwey grene. ^[15]

Priapus might not suffice,
Though he be god of gardens, to tell
Of the beauty of the garden and the well
That stood under the laurel, always green."
-  Priapus

March, April, May, June, Springtime:  Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Celebrations, Gardening Chores

"18.   The Uhr Spell is "Abundant Fertility."
-  Pulling Onions

In the West, a popular symbol of fertility we see at this time of year are colored eggs. Lots of Yin,
no Yang.