Edith here, still coming down from Malice!
It’s the merry month of May, Wickeds, and we’re going to play on that word every Wednesday until June. In some places people dance around the May pole on May 1st. In other countries they hold parades to honor workers.
What are your May Day traditions? Do you Morris dance and drink the sun up? Make a basket of flowers? March in solidarity with the workers of the world? Do you love the new month, the real onset of spring in New England, or dread the allergens it brings? Dish!
Sherry: When I was little my sister and I would make flowers out of Kleenex and rubber bands. We’d put them in baskets made out of construction paper. Then we put them on our neighbors’ doorknobs and ran off. Spring normally starts a bit earlier down here in Northern Virginia but it’s been late this year. But it is stunning in our neighborhood right now with so much in bloom. The picture below is from a week ago. It’s in full bloom now.
Julie: On the last day of April I was lamenting leaving my gloves at home, so May has always held a special place in my heart. It is the turning of the season. Here in Boston, where we all run on a school schedule to a certain degree, May also means final exams, commencements, and students leaving the city for the summer. The pace slows down (a bit), the gloves are put away for good, and there is a spring in my step.
Liz: I can’t say I ever acknowledged May Day specifically, but May is so special – I mean, spring! I love the warm weather and May always seems to signify turning the corner from a long, cold winter. Especially this year – seriously, I wore my fleecy pants on April 30! But on May 1, the weather did not disappoint.
Barb: I have vague memories of wearing a wreath of dried flowers around my head and doing a complicated dance around the maypole when I was in grade school. But mostly, the cold war dominated my childhood and the Russians had claimed May Day as their own with big military parades. The Russians were our enemies back in those olden days, (hey, wait a minute…), so that put a damper on celebrations here.
Edith: As children we also made baskets of flowers on May Day, but I don’t recall what we did with them. One memorable May Day in graduate school (1980, perhaps?) I showed up with the Morris dancers and started celebrating by drinking the sun up. I loved the the men dancing with bells on their ankles, the spirit of bringing back the fecundity of spring, but I don’t remember the rest of the day! I must have slept it off.
Jessie: I was a May pole dancer in the first grade but other than that I haven’t really celebrated the day in a traditional way. I love the month for its green grass, daffodil blossoms and hopping robins in the yard!
Readers: What you do on May Day? Did you have a tradition with it when you were younger?