May Day

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May Day

BY D. W. PARRATT, PRINCIPAL OF THE WEBSTER SCHOOL, SALT LAKE

CITY

"You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;

Tomorrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad new year;

Of all the glad new year, mother, the maddest, merriest day;

For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May."

—-Tennyson.

In canto second of Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake"

there is a Boat Song, and the first two lines of the second stanza

of this song are

"Ours is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountains,

Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade."

The word Beltane means "fire of God," and was applied to a

festivalobserved by the old, old inhabitants of England, called

Druids, in that part of the year corresponding to the early part of

our May. The festival was in honor of the sun, which they wel-

comed after the desolate gloom of winter, and the principal fea-

ture of the celebration was the building of great fires upon prom-

inent hills or elevations. For many years after the Druids, the Irish

people perpetuated this May custom by building bonfires short

distances apart and then driving cattle between them, while at

the same time fathers, holding little children in their arms, would

jump back and forth through the flames.

You who have read Milton's "Paradise Lost" will recall the

description of Adam waking and thinking of Eve, who was

asleep and, in this connection, the poet's reference to Zephyrus

;

and Flora, as expressed in these words

"Then with voice

Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,

I'

Her hand, soft-touching, whispered thus: 'Awake

My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,

Heaven's last, best gift, my ever-new delight."

Zephyrus was the Roman god of the west wind, and Flora

was the goddess of spring and flowers. Every year from the

twenty-eighth of April to the first of May, inclusive, the Romans

indulged in merry celebrations in honor of this gentle goddess,

who so kindly beautified the earth with welcome spring and

lovely flowers. Of course, when the Romans invaded England

they took this annual festival, called Floralia, with them, and as

MAY DAY 673

they associated and mixed with the Druids, it was but natural that

the Beltane of the Druids and the Floralia of the Romans should

merge and become a common festival, celebrated by all. . And

while Christianity has long since convinced the English people

that there are no heathen gods or goddesses, yet they still cling

to May Day, with its associated ideas of sun, spring and flowers.

The Irish were not the only people to follow the Druidical

custom of inviting cattle to take part in the early May festivities.

For generations some of the country places of England celebrated

May Day by decorating milch cows with bright flowers and bril-

liant ribbons, and driving them through the streets of the villages.

Sometimes, however, instead of exhibiting "Boss" or "Sooky",

milkmaids would bedeck milk pails with the flowers and ribbons,

and then make their usual rounds from customer to customer.

Upon approaching a house, the maid balanced the pail on her

head and executed a certain kind of dance before the customer

with the expectation of receiving a penny or two in return.

While in these two peculiar methods of celebrating May

Day, one readily recognizes an amusing mixture of the Druidic

cattle and the Roman flowers, yet there were other celebrations

in which prominent Christian ideas were interwoven with these

much older heathen notions. In one English village, for in-

stance, every May Day morning witnessed a litter covered with

floral decorations and loaded with three cheeses, making its way

through the streets and thence to the churchyard. Here the three

cheeses were rolled by three men around the church three times,

after which they were carried back to the gathering place in the

village, sliced, and distributed to the interested bystanders. In

this the cheese was associated with the Druidic cow or cattle, the

flowers with the goddess Flora, and the three cheeses rolled by

three men three times around the church, with the Holy Trinity.

In those bygone days of old England, boys and girls, hours

before day-break, would assemble in parties andmake for the

woods. The journey was made merry by the blowing of horns,

beating of drums, and the playing of various musical instruments.

After enjoying a jolly good tramp through the gray woodland,

they crowned themselves with flowers and then with the first

peep of the sun, returned to the village, laden with quantities of

beautiful posies and branches. With these they would decorate

the windows and doors of every house in the town. Each decora-

tion had its peculiar significance, the home of the honest old vil-

lager being trimmed with branches of the sturdy oak, while that

of the unfortunate scold never failed to receive its annual adorn-

ment of the poor alder.

Young boys and girls were by no means the only ones, in

those good old davs, to leave their beds at untimely, early hours,

for there was then' a prevailing notion among maidens, both

young

;

674 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and old, that to bathe their faces with May Day dew was suffi-

cient to retain or even to regain youthful beauty. With such an

inducement, we can readily infer that the early dawn of May saw

many a solitary maiden in quest of the coveted lotion of dew, by

the application of which she could forever remain "fair to look

upon."

Children had not only their strolls in the woods, but they often

marched in processions through the villages carrying some kind

of "May god" with them. Some of the "gods" consisted simply

of willows covered with cowslips, while others were elaborate May

garlands. The garlands were often made of two hoops of hazel

or osier, crossing each other at right angles, and completely cov-

ered with choice flowers. Usually a pretty doll in white dress was

seated in the center, the garland serving admirably as a sedan

chair. Through the hoops was passed a stick, also covered with

flowers, by which two little girls dressed in their very best white

frocks, carried the chair and its royal occupant. This feature of

the parade, of course, was always in the lead; then came the

girl and boy dressed to represent the lady and lord of May Day

and following the "dignities" marched the faithful subjects, shout-

ing, singing and having a merry good time. The royal parade

usually ended in a May party at the school house, on the village

green, or in the neighboring meadows or woods. Here the "May

god" was obliged to take a "back seat," or was hung to a tree, and

the scepter was turned over to the "Queen o' the May."

And nearly every May party had its May pole with its long,

pretty ribbons. Just when and by whom the first May pole was

used no one is at present able to tell however, we have an ac-

;

count of one as far back as the time of King Henry the Eighth.

According to this account, the pole was painted yellow and black,

and carried two banners, one white, with a forked end, and the

other the red-cross banner of St. George. Some authors tell us the

May pole was originally a standard of justice, but from our own

observations we have good reasons to believe that at present it is

a standard of frolic, merriment and fun.

"Round the May pole, trit, trit, trot.

See the May pole we have got;

Fine and gay,

Trip away,

Happy is our new May Dav."