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Tis May! Tis May!
The Lusty Month of May!
When Everyone and Everything,
Goes Blissfully Astray!
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May Day! What a glorious holiday. I think it’s a stinking shame that it’s not celebrated in The U.S. any more. It was still celebrated some when I was a kid. We would make little paper baskets, fill them with flowers and hang them on the door knobs of our neighbors, ring the door bell and then run and hide in the bushes. They would come out, professing great surprise and we would giggle. Then we usually got invited in and offered a goodie. |
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When my mother was a girl in San Francisco, May Day was a huge holiday. All the schools met in Golden Gate Park. There would be picnicking, dancing, games and of course dancing around the May Pole. In the evening, a huge bonfire was built and there would be a sing along with all of San Francisco’s school children. The sing along was always lead by some celebrity who might be in town. One |
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year that celebrity was the contralto, Madam Ernestine_Schumann-Heink. She was wearing a beautiful pair of shoe clips and my mother admired them. She bent down, removed one from her shoe and gave it to my mother. It, along with many other mementos that I have no other means of displaying, makes it’s annual showing on our Christmas Tree each year. |
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May Day was originally one of the four quarter holidays, (day that fall halfway between the Equinoxes and the Solstices) and it belonged to the workers. It was a day when no work was done, the landlord of the farm was required to provide a huge feast for all his tenant farmers and employees. Special casks of ale were made just for the occasion. The day was totally given over to enjoyment: dancing, singing, games, feasting, and yes, usually way too much drinking. It was one of the most popular medieval festivals because it celebrated the end of a long, hard winter.
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