Every spring, the pilgrimage begins.

Car loads and bus loads of students fill the southbound highways in search of sandy beaches, free-flowing beer, a good sunburn and tens of thousands of other college students looking for the very same thing.

Spring break has become somewhat of an established cultural tradition among college students. This annual event has its own rituals — a piece of 20th-century Americana of sorts.

Some argue spring break goes back further than that: It’s the modern manifestation of an age-old rite of passage in which people simply celebrate the return of spring.

The Classical Period

According to the “Official Spring Break Web Site” some believe the roots of our modern-day spring break began with ancient rituals of the Greeks and Romans.

At that time, spring meant the season of fertility. Men and women of “mate-able age” welcomed the return of the season with rituals celebrating the gods of wine — the Greek god Dionysus and the Roman god Bacchus.

The Early Years

The elements of the traditional spring break go back to the customs of the early American college student.

Journeying to the coasts or to the site of a mineral spring for a break from the world of academia was common among the well-to-do sector of 19th-century students.

The invention of the car in the early 20th century prompted the “road trip” as a mechanism for travel.

However, it took a further technological developments to mold this into the cultural icon that spring break has become.

The ’60s

It was the invention of the movies that launched the massive annual event of spring break, according to the web site.

“The 1960 classic ‘Where the Boys Are’ spread the myth throughout the nation of the epic journeys of college-age men and women to the idyllic shores of Ft. Lauderdale in the quest for fun, sun and true love,” the site says.

Bopping to the tunes of the Beatles, college students began the journey to Florida in their attempts to escape the pressures of academia in a place where romance and good times were always close.

However, Marshall Jurgens, an ISU professor of animal science, said this journey south was not the norm at the time. Jurgens said students would often go skiing in Colorado.

Jurgens said during his college days in the ’60s at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, most students went back home and worked during spring break.

The ’70s

According to site, spring break may have started with the “wholesome Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello spring break,” but like many things in the ’60s and ’70s, spring break underwent substantial revisions.

Not only alcohol, but drugs were introduced into the festivities. Fraternization between the sexes took on dimensions in the period of free love.

Ft. Lauderdale was replaced by Daytona Beach, which lost its position as the chief mecca for spring break because it was often subject to cold.

“Florida was the big place at the time for most of the Big Ten schools,” said Wally Niebauer, a professor of journalism and mass communication.

Niebauer, who received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1970, said one year “there were four of us crammed in this little car destined for Daytona and the most any of us spent was $100 — granted it was mostly beer.”

Niebauer said he might make it to Boone (Iowa that is) this year.

The ’80s

“Spring break began to take on some added sophistication, as the prospect of an entire week was less enticing for some of this generation of students than it had been for the Baby Boomers,” the site says.

In the 1980s, spring breakers looked for planned activities to include more sports, trips to theme parks and activities such as snorkeling and scuba diving. Some students attended job fairs.

But the South was still the hot spot. Although the market did switch from primarily pushing beer and cigarette advertising to computer-related items, cars and credit cards.

Assistant Professor of Marketing Thomas DeCarlo said he wished he could have gone on a spring break trip, but was never able to because of athletic commitments.

DeCarlo, who received his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State in 1982, said, “I even remember the feelings I had because my friends were all going and I couldn’t go. Coming out of college, you don’t have the time or energy to take trips like that. Plus, you have to work.”

Today

Whether it’s sand or slopes, almost anything goes for spring break fun-seekers as the range of destinations continues to expand today.

Not only do masses of students continue to flock to sandy beaches, but they are beginning to seek the opposite end of the climate spectrum on the powdery slopes of Colorado.

International destinations are becoming popular with American college students, often due to the lure of inexpensive airline tickets.

But one thing remains constant, spring break experts and nonexperts say: the call of someplace else.