Well, it is a fact that May Day, which the
children do enjoy with all vibes, is not an overly prominent holiday in
America. Yet, it does have a long and notable history as one of the world's principal festivals.
The origin of the May Day as a day for celebration dates back to the days,
even before the birth of Christ. And like many ancient festivals it too has
a Pagan connection.
For the Druids of the British Isles, May 1 was the second most
important holiday of the year. Because, it was when the festival of
Beltane held. It was thought that the day divides the year into
half. The other half was to be ended with the Samhain on November 1.
Those
days the May Day custom was the setting of new fire. It was one of
those ancient New Year rites performed throughout the world. And the
fire itself was thought to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun.
Cattle were driven through the fire to purify them. Men, with their
sweethearts, passed through the smoke for
seeing good luck.
Then the Romans came to occupy the British Isles. The beginning of
May was a very popular feast time for the Romans. It was devoted
primarily to the worship of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
It was in her honor a five day celebration, called the Floralia, was
held. The five day festival would start from April 28 and end on May 2.
The Romans brought in the rituals of the Floralia festival in the
British
Isles. And gradually the rituals of the Floralia were added to those
of the Beltane.
And many of today's customs on the May Day bear a stark similarity
with
those combined traditions.
May day observance was discouraged during the Puritans. Though, it was
relived when the Puritans lost power in England, it didn't have the same robust force.
Gradually, it came to be regarded more as a day of joy and merriment for the kids,
rather than a day of observing the ancient fertility rights.
The tradition of Maypole and greeneries:
By the Middle Ages every English village had its Maypole. The bringing in of the Maypole from the woods was a great occasion and was accompanied by much rejoicing and merrymaking.
The Maypoles were of all sizes. And one village would vie with another to show who could produce the tallest Maypole.
Maypoles were usually set up for the day in small towns, but in London and the larger towns they were erected permanently.
The Maypole tradition suffered a setback for about a couple of
decades since the Puritan Long Parliament stopped it in 1644. However,
with the return of the Stuarts, the Maypole reappeared and the
festivities of May Day were again enjoyed. One of the great Maypoles,
was
The changes brought about by the Reformation included attempts to do
away with practices that were obviously of pagan origin. But the
Maypole, or, May tree, was not issued in practice at the behest of the
second Stuart.
Although they succeeded in doing this, Maypole with most of the
other traditions, many still survived. And Maypole is one of them.
In France it merely changed its name. In Perigord and elsewhere, the
May Tree became the
"Tree of Liberty" and was the symbol of the French Revolution.
Despite the new nomenclature, the peasants treated the tree in the same
traditional spirit. And they would dance around it the same way as their
forefathers had always done.
Maypoles and trees:
Trees have been linked to a part of celebration, perhaps, to the
days ancient New Year rites. The association of trees to this
celebration has come riding on the back of the spring festival in
ancient Europe.
Trees have always been the symbol of the great vitality and
fertility of nature and were often used at the spring festivals of
antiquity.
The anthropologist E. O. James finds a strong relationship between the
ancient
tree related traditions of the British and the Romans. According to
James'
description, as a part of the May Day celebration, the youths in old
Europe cut down a tree, lopped off the branches leaving a few at the
top. They then wrapped it round with violets like the figure of the
Attis, the ancient Roman god.
At sunrise, they used to take it back to their villages by blowing horns
and flutes.
In a similar manner, the sacred pine tree representing the god Attis
was carried in procession to the temple of Cybele on Rome's Palatine
Hill during the Spring Festival of March 22.
Roots of May Day celebration in America:
The Puritans frowned on May Day, so the day has never been
celebrated with as much enthusiasm in the United States as in Great
Britain. But
the tradition of celebrating May Day by dancing and singing around a maypole, tied with colorful streamers or
ribbons, survived as a part of the English tradition. The kids celebrating
the day by moving back and forth around the pole with the the streamers,
choosing of May queen, and hanging of May baskets on the doorknobs of folks
-- are all the leftovers of the old European traditions.
source - theholidayspot.com
