Introduction
Video
Welcome
Science & Math
History
Art & Literature
GIS & Mapping
Weather Project
Library
ChatRoom
Search
School
Garden Registry
Interactive
Calendar
Trail Head
Base Camp
Camp Internet's Global Gardening Campus .
The History of May Day
One of our oldest Agricultural Celebrations
May Day, (it was called Beltane in the Middle Ages) is one of the oldes Gardening Celebrations shared by different cultures around the world.
Beltane (Bright Fire) or May Day is the first day of summer, and once marked when cattle were taken to pasture to graze after being blessed with protective bonfire smoke.
In later agricultural societies, when people leapt over bonfires, the height of their leaps was supposed to forecast the height of crops.
While a German farmer's calendar of 1493 shows all other months of the year illustrated by hard-working farm folk, May alone represents leisure time.
The cow's miraculous ability to create great amounts of milk and the bee's creation of honey, the sweetest food on earth, were absolutely magical.
Large oatcakes, called bannocks, were eaten as part of the festivities.
May Day traditionally features flowers, fruits and other sweets, and dancing, especially around a May pole with streamers.
In Italy: The people of ancient Rome honored Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime, with a festival called Florialia.
The
goddess was represented by a small statue wreathed in garlands. A procession of singers and dancers carried the statue past a sacred blossom-decked tree.
Later, festivals of this kind spread to other lands conquered by the Romans.
Today May Day is known as the happiest day of the year in Italy.
All varieties of flowers are placed in and around places of worship. Boys often serenade their sweethearts on this day.
In Switzerland, a May pine tree is often placed under a girl's window.
In Germany: German boys often secretly plant May trees in front of the windows of their sweethearts.
In Czechoslovakia: At night, boys at night place maypoles before their sweethearts' windows.
In England: The festivals begun in Italy reached their height in England during the Middle Ages.
On the first day of May, English villagers awakened at daybreak to roam the countryside gathering blossoming flowers and branches.
A towering maypole was set up on the village green.
This pole, usually made of the trunk of a tall birch tree, was decorated with bright field flowers.
The villagers then danced and sang around the maypole, accompanied by a piper.
Usually the Morris dance was performed by dancers wearing bells on their colorful costumes.
Often the fairest maiden of the village was chosen queen of the May.
Sometimes a May king was also chosen.
These two led the village dancers and ruled over the festivities.
In Elizabethan times, the king and queen were called Robin Hood and Maid Marian.
Maypoles were usually set up for the day in small towns, but in London and the larger towns they were erected permanently.
They were considered heathen eyesores by the Puritans.
May Day festivals became so gay and wild that the Puritans were able to force the government to forbid them.
They soon sprang up again, however, and still continue in many English villages.
Today in London children go from house to house bringing flowers in return for pennies.
After the pennies are collected, they are thrown into a wishing well.
Special wishes are made with hopes they will be granted.
The pennies are later collected and given to different charitable organizations.
France: The French considered the month of May sacred to the Virgin Mary, so they enshrined young girls as May queens in their churches and May queens led processions in honor or the Virgin Mary.
Cows also play important roles in French May Day festivals.
Bunches of flowers are tied and draped around their tails as they are led in parades. Everyone tries to touch the cows because it is believed to be good luck.
On May Day morning, everyone drinks milk still warm from the milking to assure good luck during the year.
Greece: Greek children set out early in the morning to search for the first swallow of spring.
When the bird is located, the children go from door to door singing songs of spring.
For their efforts, neighbors offer special treats to eat, such as fruits, nuts, and cakes.
United States: The Puritans frowned on May Day, so the day has never been celebrated with as much enthusiasm in the United States as in Great Britain.
But May Day is celebrated by dancing and singing around a maypole tied with colorful streamers or ribbons.
The dancers twist the streamers around the pole to make a pretty pattern to be enjoyed by all.
On college campuses a May queen is often chosen and the old dances are performed around a maypole.
Children often gather spring flowers, place them in handmade paper May baskets and hang them on the doorknobs of relatives and friends-- they ring the doorbells and run away, leaving their flowers as a surprise.
At May Day parties children select May queens, dance around the maypole, and sing May Day songs.
These
festivals often occur in parks or schools. Traditional May Day celebrations were pre-Christian agricultural festivals.
Eventually the significance was lost and the practices survived merely as popular festivities.
A widespread superstition held that washing the face in the May Day morning dew would beautify the skin.
In Hawaii, May Day is Lei Day. Everyone gives the gift of a lei to another, putting it around the receiver's neck and accompanying it with the traditional kiss. Lei Day began in 1928. Some Hawaiian celebrations are complete with pageants, a Lei Queen and her court.
In 1889, a congress of world Socialist parties held in Paris voted to support the U.S. labor movement's demand for an 8-hour day.
It chose May 1, 1890, as a day of demonstrations in favor of the 8-hour day.
Afterward, May 1 became a holiday called Labor Day in many nations.
It resembles the September holiday in the U.S.
The holiday is especially important in socialist and Communist countries--when political demonstrations are held.
Student Activities:
Draw 2 columns on the chalkboard.
At the top of one column write the word Alike, and at the top of the other column put the word Different.
Ask students if they can tell how May Day celebrations in other countries are similar to and different from celebrations in the U.S.
Or compare the May Day celebration with other holiday celebrations during the year.
Gather large shopping bags from the local grocery store.
Divide the class into small groups to decorate each bag with a May Day theme.
When the bags are completed, tape them to the chalkboard ledge or hang them on a bulletin board low enough for students to reach.
Use them like the wishing wells used in England. (Send notes home so that parents are informed of the project. Ask if they can send a few pennies for the wishing wells. Explain that the money will be given to the homeless, or another needy charity in your area.)
At the end of each day, have students count the amount of money in their bags and record these figures on a large wall graph.
At the end of the week, have students add the entire amount collected.
Discuss where they think the money should be donated.
Read Robin Hood stories to the class.
Role-play Robin and his band of merry men and how they might have defended themselves against the sheriff of Nottingham.
Play appropriate music and allow your students to freely express themselves through movement. Do some videotaping.
Have the class outside to gather small twigs and branches.
Clean them with paper towels.
Gather scraps of art paper, yarn, tissue paper, and any other type of materials that might be used to create flowers on the twigs and branches.
Remember to remind everyone to use their imaginations and create beautiful flowers that might be tied to cow tails as the children do in France when they celebrate May Day.
For May Day Singing:
May Flowers
Tune: "The Mulberry Bush"
Shout hurray for the flowers of May,
Flowers of May, flowers of May.
Shout hurray for the flowers of May,
Pretty springtime flowers!
Let's all play in the flowers of May,
Flowers of May, flowers of May.
Let's all play in the flowers of May,
Pretty springtime flowers!
May Day's Here
Tune: "Three Blind Mice"
May Day's here, May Day's here,
Sun shines bright, sun shines bright.
Birds and butterflies are in flight,
Blooming flowers--such a sight!
Everything feels just right.
May Day's here!
Ring Around the Maypole
Tune: "Ring Around the Rosie"
Ring around the maypole,
(Join hands with others and move in a circle.)
Pocket full of roses.
Ribbons, ribbons,
We all fall down!
(Drop to floor.)
May Basket
Tune: "Did You Every See a Lassie?"
Did you ever see a May basket,
A May basket, a May basket?
Did you ever see a May basket
That looked so good?
I worked for hours,
Then filled it with flowers.
Did you ever see a May basket
That looked so good?