MAY TRADITIONS
15 years ago, on May 1st, my daughter and I opened a basket shoppe in Sturbridge, MA and wanted as our mission to help people learn “how to give.” Honoring our French-Canadian roots, we named our shoppe, “Savoir Donner”—-”Knowing how to give!” We would start by asking our customers what they knew about the recipient of their basket-gift: favorite color, interests, etc and then suggest unique items to fill their gift basket, and even creative containers other than the traditional basket. In a thousand ways it was a grand adventure! We chose May 1st as our Opening Day due to the ancient tradition of hanging a “May basket” on a neighbor’s door to greet this delightful month of Springtime! That old custom sadly is not practiced very much anymore, except for a few countries, like Great Britain, where smaller villages may still hold to it.
It’s not the only May tradition that has fallen from favor. The dance around a Maypole, the May procession, choosing a May Queen, dancing around a bonfire are pretty much rituals that only a handful of countries still celebrate today. In the days of the Roman Empire, the beginning of the month of May was marked by the feast of Flora, the goddess of flowers, whilst in the United Kingdom, the Gaelic festival of Beltane was fervently kept. Rituals and the reason for them evolve over time, replaced by others, and even sometimes coming full circle and revived. May remains a month that still intoxicates many of us as we take in the explosion of color in blossoms of all kinds, and shades of green our tired winter eyes can hardly believe.
It is the month of the flowering almond and the one that adorns my front yard circle garden is close to 90 years old being a shoot my mother-in-law gave me from a shrub she planted when she was 7 or 8 years old! May is when in that same garden my columbine come back up, and coreopsis shakes its head awake, while peonies say, “here we come soon.” It is a prolific month of blossoming all over the place, and it’s easy to see how flowers became a main ingredient for May traditions long ago. And what largely started as pagan festivals were folded into Christian feasts and devotions. As a young girl, i have deep memories of walking to nightly May devotions at church, where we would bring picked flowers to place in front of the statue of Mary: a Catholic May queen to be sure! At school, we would also hold a May procession where someone “special” would be chosen to crown Mother Mary as we danced and sang: no bonfire but echoes of pure Beltane feasting! Even our full moon this month is nicknamed the Flower Moon as even in this industrialized and technical society, we give a nod to planting, and new growth, and the greening all around us.
May is also Apple blossom time!! And this year, on May 27th, our first-born grandson will be married to his love in an apple orchard!! I have been given the gift of “minister for a day,” and I will perform the ceremony that weds as one the once little boy I often rocked to sleep with the pretty young lady he has fallen in love with. There will be flowers galore, baskets, processions, singing, dancing, and even a bonfire the night before! Some traditions must be kept!! Happy “bringing in the May” to all of you!!
