Happy May Day (belated)

Please forgive me for being a day late in discussing the May Day celebrations, but I was a bit busy doing a little celebrating of my own.

May Day doesn't mean much for folks around these parts but around the world, it is actually a pretty big holiday. In ancient times, May 1 was officially the first day of Summer. The flowers were blooming, the days were milder and the hard work of Summer and Fall were ahead, so most leaders allowed their workers to have a holiday from work on May Day. Believe me, celebrations abounded.

The oldest May Day celebrations occurred before Christian times. They were actually festivals honoring Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. Once Christianity became the predominate religion and the old pagan gods faded from memory, May Day celebrations continued. Rather than celebrating Flora, May Day honored the Virgin Mary (May is often seen as a diminutive of Mary). Young girls would participate in the Queen of the May pageants. The winning young lady would be crowned with a garland of flowers and would be the most important person in town that day. She would lead the dancing and the festivities.

May Day revelers would get up early, before the sun rose, to gather flowers still covered with the morning dew. The dew was considered to be magical. Rub it on your face, and May Day dew would help you look youthful and beautiful for another year. Then you would take the flowers and little gifts of sweets and leave them anonymously on people's doorsteps (sort of like the way we give secret Valentines today).

For the rest of the day, there would be dancing and feasting in the village. One of the biggest traditions was to dance around the Maypole. A large garland-covered pole would be put in the center of the village. Ribbons would stream from the top of the pole. Young men and women would hold the ribbons and dance around the Maypole, interweaving with each other until the ribbons were tightly wrapped around the Maypole, covering the garland. An example of a modern-day Maypole in Sweden is in the picture at the top. I'm sure you can figure out that this is all a fertility festival. Revelers are hoping for a bountiful crop of food, goods and babies in the next year.

For me, May Day has an extremely important significance. May Day happens to be my wonderful baby's birthday. I say baby but she turned 20 this year (God I feel old!!!)
Coincidentally, Caitlin's first name is actually Mary. Fitting, isn't it considering the day. So Happy Birthday to my Caitie Bug and Happy May Day to my friends. Next year, we all need to have our own big May Day celebration!