May Day, May Day!

By Mary Jo

A recent Wench blog by Christina had us describing our personal Easter customs and memories, which I much enjoyed, though I didn't have much to contribute. (I forgot to mention that we dye Easter eggs.  And then devil and eat them. <G>)

But it got me to thinking about a little custom that I hadn't thought about in literally decades: my older sister and I making little paper cones, putting in a few flowers, generally daffodils since not much else was blooming then in Upstate New York, and taking them around to the neighbors.  We lived on a rural road with not many houses within walking distance, but it was a pleasant little custom.

I remember one year when my sister had outgrown the custom so I went around on my own.  There were a lot of Polish immigrants in our area of Western New York because there was plenty of good farm land.  I didn't notice much difference in the kids at my school except that the Polish kids tended to be blonder. But many had Polish grandmothers at home. 

On this particular year, I went to a small house on the corner of the state highway where we lived and a nearby dirt road. The little house had been a schoolhouse once, and my own father once was a student there.  (When I think back, this is all pretty remarkable but at the time it was perfectly natural.)

 

At any rate, when I knocked on the door of the little old house, the only person home was a sweet little old Polish lady who didn't speak English, and she was so delighted by the flowers that she made me take a quarter.  That didn't seem to be in the spirit of the occasion, but she wanted to give it to me and she seemed so pleased.  (Besides, a quarter was big money to a kid my age in those days. <G>) 

I hadn't thought of those little flower deliveries in a very long time, so I asked my older sister about it.  She said we did it for May Day, not Easter and no, it wasn't something my mother had thought up.

So where did this custom come from?  I asked my sister, who is very smart and has a PhD and everything and she told me to Google it.  <G>  So I googled May Baskets and found this interesting article on the NPR website as well as part of an entry on Wikipedia.  It included a great picture of Eleanor Roosevelt accepting a May basket from two little girls, one confident, one nervous, and the basket enormous!

May baskets were once a much more widespread custom, and it still persists in some rural areas.  Besides flowers, candy or small gifts might be included. Sometimes a basket could be a part of a courtship ritual: hang the basket on the front door, ring  the bell, then hide and if the right person came out, found the basket, then came looking for the person who delivered it, romance was on!

This custom was part of a much larger celebration of May Day, which was sometimes considered the beginning of summer.  After a long, cold winter, celebrating the coming of summer was natural, The holiday was generally celebrated with singing, dancing, and cake. What's not to like? <G>

Maypoles could be part of such celebrations. Once more harkening back to my childhood, some teacher at my school put up a Maypole in the middle of the school gym with many colored crepe paper ribbons falling from the top of the pole. 

Each kid in my class was given a streamer and we were directed how to circle the pole ducking around each other in a complicated pattern (which we were VERY BAD AT) until the Maypole was covered with a cross hatched pattern of different colored crepe paper ribbons. 

I don't recall any other details and this only happened the once.  I suspect that the teacher who organized this was too exhausted to try it again. <G>  The Maypole custom is much more deeply embedded in England. 

Apparently these customs can be traced to 13th century Germany, and similar festivals go back to the Romans and celebrated Flora, the goddess of flowers. In Sweden, this celebration is for Midsummer's Day, June 24th.  Perhaps because summer is slow to reach that far north?

If you're wondering about the disaster alert, "Mayday, mayday, mayday!", it has a totally different origin.  It's an anglicized version of the French "m'aidez!", meaning "Help me!"  The term was invented by a British air traffic controller in the early 1920s.  He'd been asked to come up with a term that indicated distress and was very intelligible. I think he aced it. <G>

So May Day is coming! How would you like to celebrate it?

Mary Jo, thinking that cake is a good start. <G>

Comments

[Annette Mahon]

My girls (now in their 40s) did May baskets in elementary school, and would take it to a neighbor. In Hawai'i, May Day is Lei Day. We got to wear mu'umu'u or Aloha shirts that day, and of course a lei. Since I went to Catholic school, we loved these days that we got to wear regular clothes.

[Christina Courtenay]

Lovely post, Mary Jo! Yes, in Sweden we dance around a "May pole" (which we call "Midsummer pole") at Midsummer instead, but we do also celebrate the 1st of May. Or rather, the night before, Walpurgis Night, when we have big bonfires. I think it's a leftover of the old Beltane celebrations. In any case, it's great fun!

[nancy]

I remember knowing about May baskets as a child but we didn't have any flowers where we lived. Then when we moved to Georgia and had flowers around, no one knew about May baskets.Lovely story of the Polish grandmother. A quarter was big money for children.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Annette, how nice that in Hawaii, May Day is Lei Day and you got to wear regular clothes with a lei! I imagine that felt like a real treat after months of uniforms.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Christina, I saw the references to Walpurgis Night and Beltane--clearly the coming of summer is a VERY big deal in northern climes!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nancy--how funny to have May basket knowledge but no flowers, then move to an area of opulent flowers and have no May basket custom! It would be interesting to map what parts of the country had this custom and which didn't. It seems to trend northerly.

[Annette N]

Thanks for the lovely post. I can remember doing May baskets only once when I was a child. We lived out in a sort of rural area.

Right after WWII, when I was little, we got a lot of Eastern European refugees in our neighborhood. Part of that is because I lived near a city with steel mills and there were steel workers who were being relocated. I did not learn any foreign language. One elderly lady who lived next door was a lovely woman who did not speak English. In some manner, my family communicated with her. Everyone seemed to pass information to one another. She was charming and sweet.
Hope everyone is happy and well.

[Margot]

I grew up celebrating the first of May. I come from a German background. My family was part of a religious group that fled Germany as WWII started and ended up in Paraguay. The start of May was not the same there as in Europe, but still a maypole was erected with streamers, dancing, special treats and food. It was a holiday for us all. The living there was difficult as they had to make a living in a tropical climate.
The girls wore garlands and our most special dress, the boys would have a stick with a bunch of flowers tied to the top (most did not keep these for more time than needed.)
When we moved to the USA we still kept this tradition as best we could. I do recall when I was about 12 years old a British woman taught us a song Here is the second verse which is all we learned.
"A bunch of May I bear to you
Here at the door I stand;
It's nothing but a sprout but it's well budded out
By the work of God's own hand."
We would place flowers into a small hanging paper basket, hang it on the door of an older person, knock and then hide to watch them come to the door to find the flowers was a joy. I did this for about 5 years with some of my friends. As an adult I would on occasion bring flowers to an older or infirm person on the first of May.
I know many May songs - German and English which I sing when spring is too slow in coming to my area.

Thanks so much for this wonderful post, Mary Jo.

[Karin]

A sweet custom, and it's interesting how you remember the lyrics of all those childhood songs. Memory is funny that way.

[Kareni]

Mary Jo, I always think that cake is a good start! Thanks for a fun post.

Annette Mahon, I attended Catholic schools in Guam in the seventies. We had Island Day every Friday where we were able to wear a mu'umu'u.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Annette--in the aftermath of war, mutual kindness. Words not needed. So lovely.

Thanks for the good wishes, and the same to you!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Margot--what a fascinating background and such memories! I don't know any May songs, but I love bringing happiness with flowers, as you did.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Kareni, it sounds like in Guam, you had many more opportunities to relax and wear mu'umu'us! And yes, let us celebrate with no calorie virtual cake!

[Marissa Doyle]

May Day is a big deal at my alma mater, complete with multiple maypoles, medieval plays and songs, hoop races, and a costumed parade which has on occasion included an elephant.