May Day the topic for the Angels next anthology. It will be published 2012.
Until about 60 years ago, public May Day celebrations were still to be found in many American cities. For decades, one such abandoned May Pole stood in the schoolyard of Ethel M. Burke Grade School in Bellmawr, NJ.
The month of May is named after the Roman goddess Maius, the Goddess of Growth. The word “may” was also commonly used throughout Europe to mean both a maiden, and a hawthorn, a plant that was sacred at the festival of May Day. Some scholars even believe that the modern word “mayor” stems from ancient celebrants called “mayers,” men who led the May festivities as honorary lords
Then there is this record from New York City, written in 1917: “The prettiest feature of the park (Central Park) is the May Day parties, when many a Queen of the May leads her followers there, all gay and blithe and happy, all bubbling with anticipation, all in holiday garb and fancy dress, which is usually white and tinsel and gold with ribbons of all shades, and usually there are vari-colored streamers for the girls to hold as they dance around a May Pole, and often there is music …for days thereafter many a party still comes gaily to the park.”
May Day caroling was very popular in Europe. Singers often traveled in groups, carrying greens and giving branches to homeowners. One such song went:
Robin Hood, the lad that dressed all in green, courted Maid Marian and lived in the woods with 11 of his Merry Men (making up the traditional coven’s 13). He was known in English folklore as the “King of the May,” and May Day itself was sometimes called “Robin's Day.” Also associated with May Day are archery competitions and Morris Dancing. One Bishop Latimer in 1549 complained to King Edward VI that villagers refused to come to church whenever May Day fell on a Sunday, and at one point actually took the key and locked him out of it. An Old English superstition claimed that: “If you sweep the house with blossomed broom in May, you will sweep the head of the house away.”
In England, greenwood marriages continued to take place each May Day in the town of Mayfair, long after the Christians had "converted" the masses. Such marriages were not considered legally binding by the church, but being very popular, were not outlawed until 1753.
Leave a comment and you will be entered in the May giveaway. Not sure what it is yet. The Angels are still working on it.
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