The Swan Boats may have already made their return to the Public Garden Lagoon, yet it’s not truly spring until the actual swans return to this picturesque urban waterway. Enter Romeo and Juliet, the pair of mute swans who make their way from their winter home at nearby Franklin Park Zoo back to their warm-weather home May 2 at 12:30 p.m. in the annual Return of the Swans to the Public Garden ceremony. Complete with plenty of pomp and circumstance, this yearly ritual features the reading of a children’s story followed by a grand escort for the avians in question, who are accompanied by a Dixieland band before being released from their decorative carts into the water by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Join in the fun along with the families who flock to this event, which has been a Boston tradition for nearly three decades.
