Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Mayday, Mayday


I remember hearing about the maypole when I was a kid, and how children held onto ribbons and danced around the maypole. I imagined colored ribbons wound around the white pole. But I never really saw one.

May Day is a very popular day around the world, celebrating the season, history, politics, labor, paganism, and religion. Is there any other category? I'm sure somewhere in the world there is a tradition for anything I have missed. Look here for some holiday information as well as pictures, greetings, crafts and customs.

How can we celebrate this May Day? So many choices --
  • Host a fertility festival like those in India
  • Feast and build bonfires to welcome summer
  • Greet the day with a lei like they do in Hawaii
  • Grab a birch tree and make your own maypole
  • Organize a strike in support of labor
  • Commemorate the Haymarket Riots with other anarchists
  • Dance the Morris
  • Think of Law and Loyalty and President Eisenhower's attempt to offset the communist celebrations
  • Feast for Joseph the Worker to honor Pope Pius XII
  • Be quiet and unpaganlike for the Puritans
  • Call "mayday, mayday" over a walkie talkie and prepare for jailtime for causing a disturbance and making a false report
  • Decorate your house with flowers and "bring in the May"
  • Crown a May Queen
Most sound fun to me! Have a Good May Day.

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