What is May Day supposed to be anyway? When I was younger, it meant making maybaskets with my grandmother and leaving them on the neighbor's porches. My grandmother told us that when she was little, she would do this and if a boy answered the door he was supposed to chase her and if she were caught, he would have to give her a kiss. My neighborhood has always been a little lacking in children my age, so this part of the tradition wasn't really held up.
Turns out that May Day started with something to do with labor. These days the only people who celebrate it properly in the US are commies and socialists. England, of course, does a proper job with morris dancers (http://www.rathergood.com/morris_dancers/), maypoles and madrigals (sung from rooftops). As for me, I like the Irish holiday Beltane which is almost the same thing but really very different. It's very pagan (as Irish holidays often are) and involves fire. Big fires. And the official start of summer. I like summer.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
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