May Day

May Day, on May 1st, is a spring celebration of the blooming flowers. Maying is what we call the things we do to celebrate this beautiful month-- going on picnics, picking flowers, dancing around a maypole, and sharing our love.

May Day is an ancient holiday stemming from the festival of Floralia which honored Flora, the Flourishing One, the Roman goddess of spring. 

Flora is a bright nature goddess who makes trees bloom- she is a “lady of pleasure", but also a symbol of motherhood. She wears a garland of flowers in her hair, and in her right hand she holds a columbine, for fertility. In England a young woman is chosen as May Queen, representing Flora, and is crowned with hawthorn blossoms. She is often accompanied by a May King.

Agenda:
1. Prepare a Beltane fire
2. Bring in the May
3. May baskets
4. Make Tippaleivät (Finnish May Day Fritters)
5. Maypole Dances

1. Prepare a Beltane fire:
In some places, May Day celebrations still begin at sunset on April 30. May Day eve is called Beltane or, in Germany, Walpurgisnacht, named for the English missionary Saint Walpurga (ca. 710–777).

Here I have collected oak (planted by a squirrel), grape, birch, fir, apple, and hawthorn
 from our yard in preparation for a fire. (I don't know where to find the hazel, rowan
and willow, so wisdom, life and death are unrepresented.)

Beltane means "fire of Bel"; Bel is a Celtic Sun God. On Beltane the Celts would build two large Bel Fires, lit from the nine sacred woods: 

• birch for the goddess
• oak for the god
• rowan for life
• willow for death
• hawthorn for purity
• hazel for wisdom
• apple for love
• grapevine for joy
• fir for immortality

The Bel Fire was an invocation to Bel, asking him to bring his blessings and protection to the tribe. It celebrated the return of fruitfulness to the earth. The ashes were smudged on faces and scattered in the fields, to heal and purify.

2. Bring in the May:

Hawthorn is called the May bush, because it blooms now in England; ours is just on the verge. Cutting the may blossom symbolizes the beginning of new life. I will hang a sprig of hawthorn at our front door to protect and purify our home.

3. May baskets: 
When I was very young, my siblings and I used to run around the neighborhood on May Day morning with flowers from our yard. We would put the flowers on the mat, ring the doorbell, and run and hide. It was scary and exciting!

Today I will give someone flowers anonymously.

4. Make Tippaleivät (Finnish May Day Fritters):

Ingredients:

• canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2-c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt,
• powdered sugar

1. Fill a heavy pot or deep fryer to about 6" deep with oil, and bring to 375ºF. 

2. Whisk together egg and sugar lightly, then stir in milk.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir into the batter until lumps are removed. 

Transfer batter to a pastry tube with a small tip, or a zip-lock bag. Cut a small hole in one corner.

4. Lower a metal soup ladle into the oil until the ladle is about halfway filled with oil. 

Quickly pipe the batter in to the ladle in a lacy criss-crossed pattern until it's full.

5. Lower the ladle completely into the oil; the fritter will float immediately to the top. 

Allow to brown until golden and then flip over to brown the other side (about 15 seconds per side).


6. Remove the fritters and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

5. Maypole Dances!
I have a clothesline post in my yard that we have used as a Maypole. My friend Georgia and I made ribbons from 4-inch strips of cloth sewn together, and attached one end of each to a plastic salsa container lid. We rolled the ribbons up for easy storage. When it is time to dance, I nail the plastic lid onto the top of my clothesline pole, and unrolled the ribbons.

I did organize Maypole dances one year with my art class students, but I didn't get photos. It was very disorganized- we could have used some practise. I will try it again someday, but we don't have time this year.

Here are the dances we tried. The goal is to wind the ribbons up, then unwind with no tangles, and have fun doing it:

Simple Dance: Everyone pick up a ribbon and face the same direction. Start the music and all dance around the maypole in the same direction until no length of ribbon is left, then reverse your steps and unwind the maypole. If you unwind without any knots you have successfully completed your first dance.

The Gypsy Tent: Make two circles with taller people on the outside ring and shorter people inside, and each person holding a ribbon in the right hand. Start the music- the outer group stands still, and inner people dance around outside of their partner and then inside around the next person. To unwind, reverse the moves.

Grand Chain: Everyone stands in the outside circle again. Pairs turn to face each other, and hold ribbon in the hand furthest from the maypole. The hand nearest to the maypole is used to guide the ribbon. Start the music. Pairs move in opposite directions and alternate under and over until the ribbons are again exhausted. To unwind, remember to pass your last person first. Dance at a constant pace.
There are many variations of this dance, with each group taking a turn to move or with one group passing two of the other group before dancing around them. You can experiment.

Our hawthorn tree.