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Holidays:  May Day?  |
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MariaAZ
True Blue Farmgirl
203 Posts
Phoenix
AZ
203 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 14 2007 : 11:20:19 PM
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Does anyone else here celebrate May Day? My mother, born and raised in Germany, celebrates the first day of May with a bouquet of fresh flowers. It's a takeoff of an old custom of hanging a paper cone with fresh flowers on someone's door as a May Day gift. When I was younger, she would buy me a chocolate ladybug (it wasn't a ladybug actually, but I can't remember the type of bug it was) from the German deli for the first of May. This is also apparantly a pretty well established German tradition.
Just wondering if anyone else does this :) |
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GaiasRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2552 Posts
Tasha-Rose
St. Paul
Minnesota
2552 Posts |
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Marybeth
True Blue Farmgirl
6418 Posts
Mary Beth
Stanwood
Wa 98292
USA
6418 Posts |
Posted - Apr 15 2007 : 06:33:34 AM
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When we were young we would make flower baskets and put in a few flowers and hang them on doorknobs and ring the doorbell and run away. I instilled that in my children although we lived out with few neighbors there was a very elderly couple that they would put flowers on their door. I continued that myself until a few years ago and she was always so appreciative. She is gone now but i do think of her often specially in May.
www.strawberryhillsfarm.blogspot.com
www.day4plus.blogspot.com www.holyhouses-day4plus.blogspot.com
"Life may not be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well dance!" |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Apr 15 2007 : 6:55:01 PM
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We used to bake cookies on May Day, put them in a woven paper basket. We would then put them on our neighbor's porch, ring the door bell, then hide somewhere so we could see them get their "fairy" present. Lots of fun. I should do this with my neighbors this year.
Alee |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2007 : 4:37:04 PM
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I danced around the Maypole ( in Moscow, Alee) with my daughter a couple of years ago at the Renaissance Fair. That was fun. Some of the neighbor children knock on our doors and run away -leaving flowers in a little paper basket. I always think that's so sweet.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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Utahfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1940 Posts
Portland
Oregon
USA
1940 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2007 : 6:02:45 PM
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When Chrissy was little, I'd call her "The May Day Chrissy" (we had a Christmas Chrissy, a Mothers Day Chrissy, an Easter Chrissy, etc. ) and she'd bring little bouquets of flowers to neighbnors doors. Those were sweet times.
Farmgirl hug,
Patricia
Farmgirls do it organically! |
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MariaAZ
True Blue Farmgirl
203 Posts
Phoenix
AZ
203 Posts |
Posted - Apr 17 2007 : 2:17:53 PM
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Ah, all these stories make me wish I had experienced the holiday in more of a community measure! I DO remember the May Pole dance one year in grade school, but my mother is the only link I have to May Day as an entire holiday.
Visit my blog at www.craftyfool.net |
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2 Red Barns
Farmgirl in Training
31 Posts
Jamie
Bay City
Michigan
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - Apr 21 2007 : 06:00:26 AM
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| I used to own my own flower shop and tried to promote may day one year with the flower filled cones for the door. I did a may pole in the shop it was so fun and cute...but I don't think enough people were familiar with it and being so near Mother's Day...I don't think people wanted to make another flower purchase. I love it though!!! I liked the whole idea of it. Jamie |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Apr 21 2007 : 10:26:00 AM
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Jamie-
It sounds like it was a really cute idea, perhaps it would have taken a few years for it to catch on? I think you are right though, that many people don't want to purchase flowers so close together. I know that on my budget I can't afford to buy flowers from a florist very often- so I go to the mountains and pick wildflowers or I drive alongside country roads and pick wild flowers there too. I am sure all the people driving by wonder why I am stopping to pick "weeds"!
Alee |
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daffodil dreamer
True Blue Farmgirl
805 Posts
Jayne
Hamilton
Victoria
Australia
805 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 01:42:42 AM
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I was just wondering the same thing myself. I just bought the Buttrę Shelf Cookbook and it is all arranged by occasions - May Day was one of them. She talked about making May Day baskets for neighbours/friends and the Maypole. It isn't a celebration in Australia at all, but on reading about it, I thought it would be lovely to celebrate. Of course, it is meant to be a celebration of spring (all the festivals are difficult to plan for, being in the Southern Hemisphere - takes a bit of imagination and creative license to alter them!), but I'm sure I can think of some other way. I think the cookies sounds like a good idea.
Best wishes,
Jayne |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 07:03:09 AM
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I think we'll revive the little paper cone and flower part of the tradition around here - assuming I can come up with some flowers! If not, I guess we'll make some out of paper and add some real greenery. I only really have a couple of neighbors, so maybe the boys and I will make them and deliver them in secrecy... William will LOVE that! He absolutely can't get enough of doing things in what he calls "scampy" ways !
XOXO, Libbie
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar..." - Helen Hayes |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 07:04:31 AM
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Jayne - I just was thinking - you could put ANYTHING seasonal in the paper cones, too - just to make it a "celebration of the season" in Austraila. Just think of how surprised (and maybe confused !) your neighbors would be!
XOXO, Libbie
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar..." - Helen Hayes |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 7:49:43 PM
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Libbie-
That is what I loved so much about May Day- The excitement of doing something nice but in a sneaky way! Sometimes it is fun to not get the credit for doing something nice but rather to have it be a nice mystery for your friends and neighbors.
Alee
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Apr 28 2007 : 10:53:50 AM
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Alee - I know! Aren't things like that so much fun!!!
XOXO, Libbie
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar..." - Helen Hayes |
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Holidays: May Day? |
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May Day?
