May Day

May 01: May Day

May Day
Dancing around the Maypole

Remember the childhood rhyme April showers bring May flowers? Flowers are a big part of May Day celebrations. May Day brings maypoles, collecting flowers, and the delight in finding a surprise basket of flowers on your doorstep. Throughout its history, May Day has traditionally been a joyous celebration of spring, femininity, fertility, and the coming summer.

The first day of May is celebrated in many parts of the world. It’s believed to have evolved from ancient agricultural and fertility rites of spring. There are signs of the first celebrations in Egypt. However, the majority of the current traditions stem from the Roman Festival Floralia, a six-day festival to honor the Goddess Flora with offerings of flowers, dancing, and ringing bells. Other traditions developed from the ancient celebrations of the Beltane and the Germanic Walpurgis Night.

Customs and Traditions:

The May Queen would oversee crops and rule the day. Some places also selected May Kings. The crowns were typically made of twigs, leaves, and flowers.

The Maypole was fabricated the night before. Men would strip down a birch tree and plant it in the ground; this ceremony was symbolic of fertility rites. The next day, both men and women danced about the Maypole. Several long ribbons hung from the top of the Maypole holding up a crown of colorful flowers. Each dancer held the end of one ribbon. The dancers alternated man and woman. All the women would dance in one direction and the men danced in the other direction. They would go under the first person and over the next person, weaving the ribbons about the tree and lowering the ring to the ground. Today, this tradition is still practiced but danced mostly by young boys and girls.

Those traditions, along with those from Beltane, created a wonderful medieval holiday that is still celebrated today. May Queens and Kings are still elected and people dance around Maypoles.

The fair maid who, the First of May,
Goes to the field at break of day
And washes in the dew from the hawthorn tree,
Will ever after handsome be.

People began gathering twigs and flowers to decorate their homes and the lovely tradition of May baskets began. Children left baskets made from twigs and filled with flowers on their neighbor’s doorstep, knocked, and then hid, waiting to see the expression of the lucky recipient.

Summer is coming, oh, summer is near
with the leaves on the trees and the sky blue and clear
small birds are singing their fond notes so true
and wild flowers are springing in the May morning dew
–old folk song

In Ireland, yellow primroses are sprinkled outside the doorway to protect the home from evil spirits; in Wales hawthorn is used.

In Scotland, bannocks are a traditional food and on May Day they are marked with a cross. Children roll them down the hills. If the cake lands with the cross facing down, it’s considered bad luck.

Another custom is “maying” or “to go a-Maying.” Maying is simply gathering flowers for May Day celebrations. The verse, “Here we go gathering nuts in May,” is from a popular May Day game referring to gathering knots of flowers. Nuts is a corruption of the word “knot.” In the British Isles, Hawthorn flowers come into blossom at the end of April and are commonly “gathered in knots.”

In 1644 England, the Puritan leaders banned May Day celebrations because of its ties with pagan traditions. Even so, people still managed to celebrate. The ban was eventually overturned and the celebrations strengthen with the Restoration of England.

In some parts of Britain, it’s called Garland Day. Greenery was collected and made into garlands. Children would parade garlands of flowers fastened to sticks, crosses, or hoops.

In France, it’s also known as La Fête du Muguet or Lily of the Valley Day. Traditionally, a sprig of lily-of-the-valley is given to loved ones. This flower is considered a lucky charm.

Today, May Day is celebrated all over Europe and in many countries and in some parts of the United States. In many countries, boys leave maypoles outside their sweetheart’s window.

American celebrations are sporadic and many people don’t celebrate it at all. However, Mendon, Utah, has a huge celebration every year. Pennsylvania holds a Faerie Festival and Hawaii celebrates Lei Day.

May Day has another completely different holiday association. On May 1, 1886 a riot broke out between the Chicago police and workers who had been striking to gain an eight-hour workday. Six strikers were killed. The following day a bomb went off among a group of police officers killing eight. Four men were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. This event became known as the Haymarket riots. In 1889, the Working Men’s Association declared May 1st an international working class holiday to commemorate the fallen strikers and to acknowledge the strife of the worker.

⇴ image from Ron Cogswell, flickr, (CC BY 2.0)


May Day Shirts and Gifts
May Day Shirts and Gifts
by Holiday Bug
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