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Decades ago, a Maryland sailor burned his winter socks. Now it's a spring tradition

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/26/nx-s1-5760894/sock-burning-annapolis-oysters-sailing-chesapeake-bay

Scott Neuman (26 March 2026)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – How do you welcome spring after one of the coldest winters in decades? In the Chesapeake Bay town of Annapolis, by burning your socks.

This annual festival, which draws hundreds, is held in the city's Eastport neighborhood and timed to coincide with the spring equinox. It's a potent blend of smelly socks, alcohol, music, piles of oysters and more than a hint of pyromania.

"I like to watch the socks burn, something about that," acknowledges Mary Keller, a lifelong Annapolis resident.

For nearly 50 years, the Annapolis Oyster Roast & Sock Burning has marked the long-awaited return of warmer days to the East Coast boating hub — and time for sailing season to begin again.

Kelly Swartout, vice president of development at the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park, explains that it all started in 1977 "during one of the coldest seasons we had." The bay froze over and "a local sailor got so fed up with the cold weather that he decided he was going to take his socks off and burn them."

Bob Turner, a boatyard worker, is credited with starting the tradition. According to Baltimore magazine, Turner found two things unbearable — winter and wearing socks — so he decided to toss his into a bonfire. He told his coworkers, "'I'm not putting them on again until next winter,'" he recalled to the magazine in 2015.

In our Annapolis (Annapolis Royal, the original one), the spring equinox would have been way too early to burn one's winter socks!  We still need 'em for another month or so.

There are numerous trees in the USA where people throw their shoes up onto a tree and its branches.  Usually these trees are called the "Shoe Tree." 

What does this have to do with socks?  Well, that is what you might have left on after you toss your shoes!