Friday, May 1, 2009

Happy May Day!

Hey - it's May Day! Yeah, I forgot too - it's not exactly a big event these days (probably due to the lack of commercial opportunities), but one worth remembering,

I love the idea of May baskets - I'd never heard of them before. Obviously not a US tradition, but it looks like fun all the same. Maybe next year, so I can plan ahead....

From Wikipedia:
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian, with the festival of Flora the Roman Goddess of flowers, the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May.

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.
Here are a few simple May Day activities I found trolling the interwebz:

May Day Word Find

May Day History for Preschoolers

List of Ideas from Preschool Express

Coloring Pages from Everything Preschool

Computer Activity: Pages to Color Online

Make a Maypole (and other ideas)

2 comments:

  1. We did May Baskets when I was a kid and I LOVED them. I'd drop them off at my favorite neighbors doors. Flowers and sweets.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really? Wow - I may need to resurrect this custom. It's about to thunderstorm here today, though...not very Spring-y is it?

    ReplyDelete

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