Happy May Day!

May Day

May Day (May 1) is a holiday rich in history and folklore, celebrating spring’s return! Many may remember grandparents leaving delightful little May Day baskets, as well as the fun tradition of dancing around the Maypole at school. 

ORIGINS OF MAY DAY

May Day has its roots in astronomy. We’re (about) halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice! It’s one of the Celtic cross-quarter days, which celebrated the midway points between all the year’s solstices and equinoxes.

As with many early holidays, May Day was rooted in agriculture. Springtime celebrations filled with dance and song hailed the sown fields starting to sprout. Later, celebrations evolved to speak more to the “bringing in the May” with the gathering of wildflowers and green branches, the weaving of floral garlands, the crowning of a May king and queen, and the setting up of a decorated May tree, or Maypole, around which people danced. Such rites originally may have been intended to ensure fertility for crops and, by extension, for livestock and humans. Still, in most cases, this significance was gradually lost so that the practices survived largely as popular festivities. 

THE MAYPOLE DANCE

Wrapping a Maypole with colorful ribbons might be the most known tradition that still exists in some schools and towns.

Originally, the Maypole was a living tree brought in from the woods with much merrymaking. Ancient Celts danced around the tree, praying for good crops and fertility. For younger people, there was the possibility of courtship. If paired by sundown, the courtship continued so that the couple could get to know each other and married six weeks later on June’s Midsummer’s Day.

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