Happy May Day everyone!!

May Day (May 1) is a spring festival celebrating human fertility and the renewal of nature. It's a meopagan
festival, a saint's feast day, and a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday. The festival originated with the celebration of the Roman goddes Flora and spread to other countries of the Roman Empire. May Day was especially popular in England during medieval times. Activities centered around the maypole, a tree collected from the woods and brought to the village to celebrate the upcoming summer. The pole would be hung with greenery and ribbons, brightly painted, and otherwise decorated, and served as a central point for the festivities.
May Day was also a time for dancing around the maypole. In the 19th century, people began to braid the maypole with ribbons by weaving in and out in the course of a dance. Other later traditions included making garlands for children and the crowning of the May Queen. Often times when this was going on, some sneaked into the woods for temporary sexual encounters . It was this latter activity that Purtians found objectionable. By 1644, May Day had been banned
by the English Parliament although it reappeared when Charles II took the throne in 1660. However, the overt sexuality of the festival went underground during the Victorian period and May Day was transformed into a celebration of England. In the United States, we generally give our neighbors and friends a small basket of flowers attached to their doors as a May Day gift and to mark the happiness of Spring.

This Photograph was taken by my Uncle Richard Marchant. It truly reminds me of Spring.