|
May
Day Is Around
the Corner
Do you
remember hanging May Baskets on neighbors’ doorknobs on the first of
May?
Our
crepe
paper flower project this month’s Newsletter is a small flower, very
easy to
make, and quite suitable for putting in a little basket or in a paper
cone if
you want to revive that old tradition.
No
one
knows for how many thousands of years our ancestors in northern
climates
celebrated the first flowers of spring. Probably that first bloom was a
cause
for celebration even for cave-dwellers.
In
England,
it’s May Day. In Germany, it’s Walpurgis Nacht. The first day of May
was a
holiday celebrating the beginning of summer and its plenty. The Romans
had the
festival of Floralia, in honor of Flora, goddess of flowers around this
date as
well.
In southern
Sweden May Day or Valborg, is a major holiday, similar to Christmas.
Young
folks used to go into the woods to find greenery. They would decorate
their
neighbors’ homes with it, and receive eggs as a reward.
In old
England, villagers chopped down a tree and brought the tall trunk to
the center
of the village green. There the May Pole was decorated with ribbons and
garlands of flowers. The villagers danced around it, feasted, and
generally had
a good time.
They also
gave gifts of flowers to their neighbors, which led to May Baskets.
Let’s
revive the tradition! It’s a great project for children. If they cannot
give
May Baskets to the neighbors, they can give them to parents and
siblings!
Remember,
if you leave a May Basket for a neighbor, you hang it on the doorknob,
ring the
bell and run away. Now, this is supposed to be a nice present, so don’t
deliver
May Baskets too early in the morning—someone may throw a slipper at you!
You can
find directions for simple baskets on the Internet. The simplest one I
found is
made from paper plates at
http://crafts.kaboose.com/maybasket5.html
The
prettiest one I found is a little harder to make, and is at:
http://www.highhopes.com/maybasket.html
You’ll need
to learn to make the star first, but the instructions are on the same
site,
just click on Free Star Instructions.
|
