Happy May Day everyone! Now we can say Spring is here for certain.
Anyone have stories of May Poles or May Baskets? I remember hanging the little basket of flowers on my front door and ringing the bell and hiding - as if my mom would be surprised at who put the little paper basket of posies on her doorknob!
jpbluesky
O, cease to heed the glamour that blinds your foolish eyes, Look upward to the glitter of stars in God's clear skies.
WE used to do that in our neighborhood when we were little..we used mason jars with ribbons or yarn tied around the necks..its a wonder that no one broke our jars of flowers just opeing the door!! (we tied them on the doorknobs) My kids school does a may festival (this year on the 16th) and the kids all so look forward to it. They always have a theme and each class does a dance to a song and the big thing is the 5th graders (oldest at the school) get to do the maypole dance. They set up 3 maypoles in the gym at the high school and each class (there are three) gets a pole and it is so fun to see if they can do it all the way woven and then back to unwoven. Last year all three did it. My oldest daughter gets to do it this year and talks about nothing else. My second son is 25 today and I always thought it was fun to have a May day baby!!
We made our baskets in the shape of cones out of construction paper. Usually this time of year there were lilacs to fill them with. In school we did more elaborate baskets. A clean tin can covered in scraps of old wallpaper and the paper doileys overlay with yarn for a handle. Then we would make the flowers out of pipe cleaners and construction paper. There was a Catholic college here that did a maypole celebration for years. They stopped doing it in the 60's. I heard from some of my older aunts that attended they donned their best long flowing gowns and sang songs while they danced around the maypole. Saw pictures and it was quite a sight with all the young women in their finest. The maypole is a fertilty rite. My aunts all went on to have very large broods. Must have worked!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century.
OH what nice memories! We haven't done May Day here in quite a while. I'm not sure why our schools don't do those things any more. We did similar things in school with the May dance and pole and making woven paper pockets adorned with doilies and pictures of flowers. Dogwoods, lilacs and sometimes bridal wreath spirea were all in bloom so we had pretty bouquets to leave as surprises. I remember the excitement of hiding but being able to see the recipient's reaction and that was always so much fun. My Mom would oooo and ahhhhh as if she didn't know but we were on to her! I also remember leaving one at the grumpiest man on the street's house and when I graduated from high school he and his wife sent me a card thanking me for my kindness and that they had enjoyed watching me grow up. You never know what a small act of kindness will do for someone you hardly know.
In grammar school (showing my age there - grammar school - who says that anymore???) we used to take flowers to the teachers on May Day (they were nuns so you didn't forget!). Same thing for church - flowers for Mary. Of course, we never told the teachers that we picked the flowers on the way to school, from the lilac bushes we found along the way!
Cecelia
ce's farm
"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery" Victor Hugo
I remember dancing the maypole fondly. It is one of my favorite childhood memories. I think my children now would laugh at me if I suggested we do it. The days of innocence.
There is somewhere (maybe I saw it in her book) a picture of Katherine Hepburn and her Bryn Mawr college "sisters" all in gauzy white dresses and flower garlands dancing around the Maypole in maybe the 1920's (?). It is a fantastic picture and I always think of children and Katherine Hepburn when I think of the May pole!
Katherine Hepburn has got to be my all time favorite female actress. I can just imagine her dancing around a Maypole in a gauzy white dress with a bunch of giddy college girls. Would love to see that photo. Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth
Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts
Posted - May 04 2005 : 3:25:46 PM
There is a great May Day scene in "Mona Lisa Smile" with the girls dancing around the may pole.
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow
May Day
Posted - May 01 2005 : 5:16:18 PM
