Festival of Flora, etc.

The local news this morning was full of warnings about disruptions and traffic chaos expected from May Day protests and marches downtown. A "Celebration of Anarchy" is planned. Oh, boy.

Fortunately, I'm headed in the opposite direction to the mountains.  It's a beautiful sunny day, which tends to bring out the "anarchists" in Seattle.  As least the ones that don't have to go to work. Today is celebrated as Labor Day in many countries, but it seems to have evolved into a day to protest every issue in the universe.

Long before the labor movement, communism, socialism and every other sort of "ism,"  May Day was a pagan holiday. In ancient Rome it was the Festival of Flora, the goddess of flowers. It was a time of wearing bright colors, drinking and all sorts of permissive behavior. 

By the middle ages, these pagan spring festivals were adapted to the Church calendar and became the celebration of Whitsun, or Pentecost.  There weren't many holidays for the medieval working stiff that involved feasting, dancing, and parties, but this was one of them.   In England, people gathered flowers to "bring in the May" and danced around a maypole with garlands.

There were many superstitions associated with May Day, including the belief that washing yoiur face with dew on the morning of May 1 would beautify the skin.

May Day never became part of American culture, mainly because the Puritans forbade celebrating holidays with pagan origins. But May Basket Day was the exception, and in some parts of the country it was once a big deal. There really was a time when America was more innocent.

Eleanore Roosevelt receives a May basket in 1938

 
On May 1, children would gather flowers and make construction paper cones to hang on the doorknobs. A nice reversal, because on almost every other holiday, children receive gifts from grownups. Part of the fun and excitement of course was trying to sneak around undetected.

Our little neighbor girls used to bring May baskets over, and Amanda made them too, but that was over 35 years ago. Like so many other sweet old customs, May baskets have fallen by the wayside. We never see children outside anymore playing alone, or even walking to school without a grownup.  Much less, leaving things on the doorsteps of strangers.