Paying Tribute to May

The plainest girl will be beautiful if she rises early on May Day and bathes her face in the morning dew at sunrise. So goes the old European saying... Me Ma told me to wash twice!

If the young little girl was daring enough to undress and roll naked, she was given great beauty of person; the dew was also believed to bring immunity to freckles, sunburn, chapping, and wrinkles during the coming year. What about the bunions on the feet, you may ask? It cured or prevented headaches, skin ailments and sore eyes and, if applied to the eyes, it ensured that its user rose every morning clear-eyed, alert and refreshed, even after a very short sleep. 

Now, don’t you feel robbed by the beauty parlors and host of  expensive products out there?

Every May morning in my home in Ireland, we ran or walked in the chilled dewy grass before breakfast. A beautiful fresh start — heralding ourselves into the wonders of Spring. My father still washes the feet on May Day in the dewy grass at 82 and looks no more than 62 years old.  It was raining out this year; the pilgrimage gets done regardless.

In the old days, May was celebrated with bonfires, the drinking of water from holy wells, with balls and dancing. 

The celebration in the month of May included the care and thrift of the housewife at managing her food stocks through the long winter and people would be served “stir about” (milk and flour boiled thick!!!) if there was still flour in the pantry. The celebrations surrounding these Spring Days in May are all closely bound up in some way with food production. 

No matter how poor the household, the house was cleaned form top to bottom and there was a festive supper, or at least a tasty dish.  Fresh butter was always churned.

Later, when we became better-off, “stir about” was replaced by favorites such as young lamb or kid roasted whole.  Or, roasted veal, with a crop of fresh new potatoes. 

Remember the old childhood rhyme, "Here we go gathering nuts in May?" Well, there are no nuts involved at all. The word was originally knots, and referred to knots or bunches of flowers. So, while May 1st was an important day on European farming calendar, it was also a time to celebrate the end of winter with the gathering of flowers, dancing around bonfires or May poles, and one very special activity usually performed by Irish children — the making of a May bush.

It was once thought that on Beltane, (the arrival of Summer Festival in ancient times) the fairies would get up to more mischief than usual. So, parents were just as eager to help their children in the creation of this important May Day symbol, because it was said to protect the family, ward off evil spirits and ensure a plentiful harvest in the coming months. In more recent times, as the influence of the Roman Catholic Church became stronger and more widespread throughout Ireland, the erecting of the May Bush was done to honor the Virgin Mary.

I’ve been dragging out May celebrations in after-school activities in Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks.  We danced around the May Pole, May 1st - just like the ancient Romans danced & then as the English did after being conquered by the Romans.  And, like good ole Romans we had a festival in honor of Flora, their goddess of flowers. 

At 6:00am, on May 1st, the children arrived to gather the abundant flowers grown here in PR all year round to fill cones.  It aided to the perfumed air around the school’s  “meadows“.  Earlier, cones were decorated, and ribbons were attached.  The children filled the cones with blossoms to hang over every teacher doorknobs.  Flowering bushes, trees and classrooms are all outdoors here.  It wasn’t a time to tame the high spirits brought on by the mischievous boys trying to disguise their awkwardness. 

This coming week I’ll tie bells to arms and legs as the male Morris dancers will weave with the girls and we’ll learn how to dance and weave around the revered Pine Tree Maypole decorated with blooms and greenery.  Twelve dancers form two circles of six, one inner, one outer.  Dancers on the outer circle remain stationary, while the dancers in the inner circle skip around the pole. All of this makes my husband contrast why the Brits liked Benny Hill and many upper Midwesterners were left wondering.

Every girl will be queen of May.  Old Man Winter will be burned in effigy (albeit the weather is going from hot to hotter nowadays) or if I‘m stuck for ideas…I‘ll throw in the mischievous boys… in effigy. 

Festivals like these help turn attention to our younger audiences, the arts connoisseurs of the future.   It has been a great way to explore the arts in the quest to inspire children and their families through music, theatre, dance and participation in these May Month Celebrations. 

Let’s keep faithful to tradition and herald ourselves into the wonders of Spring, pilgrimages, new beginning, new travels, comfortable ways, friendship. On the other hand, the great work ethic of Minnesotans would perhaps reply, “herald this — your lawn needs to be mown, there is Creeping Charlie everywhere, the garden needs to be tilled, the trees must be sprayed, mulch needs to be put down, paint is peeling, ants have invaded the 60 year old spuce and the grass along the fence needs to be weed whipped.”

So yes, dance around a May pole as long as there’s a Lawnboy in one hand and the ribbon doesn’t get caught up in the 3,000 rpm blades.