COLUMN. Walter Damen is happy that spring is here: “The misery of the world seemed to have disappeared for a moment” | THIS WEEK BY DAY ALL

We call March 21 the official start of spring, while we should actually take astronomical spring into account. It starts every year at the moment when day and night are exactly the same length. For those interested: this year it was on March 20 at 4:06 am in the Northern Hemisphere. On the other side of the world – in the Southern Hemisphere – spring does not start until September 22.

How I love spring. Everything is starting to unfold. The first flowers are gently beckoning the sun, the magnolias are already in fantastic bloom and people’s mood is steadily rising. Not only to the special rhythm of nature, but also simultaneously with the warmth of the sun’s rays on our skin.

It struck me when I had to argue in Leuven this week: many over-enthusiastic students ventured out in T-shirts or short skirts, while the elderly snuggled on the terrace in warm coats. The misery of the world seemed to disappear for a moment and that felt good. It might all have to do with the sunlight. This apparently causes the production of serotonin and dopamine, which in turn produces a feeling of well-being.

I enjoy experiencing it all. I also like to put on ‘Spring’ by Antonio Vivaldi in my car, which always makes me happy. If I may advise something, it would be Max Richter’s version, recomposed. Easy to find on Spotify.

Even on the way to a difficult case, ‘The Four Seasons’ sometimes blares through my speakers. Some great ‘music connoisseurs’ are rather dismissive about it: Vivaldi is too well known, therefore too accessible and, as a result, too ‘ordinary’. However, that is not correct. My late father-in-law always said that Vivaldi was the music played in heaven. He was right. And if I get any say in St. Peter’s playlist, it may be the heavenly and healing ‘Gloria / Dixit Dominus’. I don’t think you can get any closer to paradise than with that music.

It reminds me of the prison film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, where Tom Hanks in his unparalleled performance reverberates an opera through all the speakers in the prison. Everyone comes to an unlikely peace. Morgan Freeman’s character says the wonderful words: ‘I had no idea to this day what those Italian ladies were singing about. The truth is, I don’t wanna know, some things are best left unsaid, but for one moment we all felt free.‘ I’ll tell you: it was Mozart’s opera ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’, sung by Gundula Janowitz. Just look it up.

I just remember that the sun and beautiful music give people a feeling of freedom. And in terms of musical style, everything is fine, as long as you enjoy it and it opens up all your senses.

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