Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May Day

Lilies of the Valley



May Day in France is a national holiday: children don’t go to school and most employees get the day off; the post office and banks don’t operate; supermarkets and many businesses are closed.  It’s a day to commemorate workers’ rights.  In fact, May Day as a workers’ holiday started in the United States during the latter decades of the 19th century, when workers organized to demand an 8-hour work day, which actually didn’t go into effect in the U.S. until 1938 (whereas in France, workers obtained the 8-hour day in 1919).  While May Day is celebrated throughout most of Europe, contemporary Americans have no collective recollection of the holiday’s history because of its suppression in the United States since the mid-1950’s, when the Cold War dominated American political ideology: the United States associated May Day with communism since the Soviet Union celebrated workers on May 1.  The American myopic view of May Day as a communist holiday ignores its ancient pre-labor roots.

The first of May prevailed as a pagan festival before Christianity conquered Europe.  The Celtic holiday of Beltane celebrated fertility, fire, and the beginning of summer on May 1, and the Vikings observed the evening of April 30 lighting bonfires to scare evil spirits and witches, and to hasten the fertility of spring and summer.  This festival became known in the Germanic-speaking and Eastern European countries as Walpurgis Night, named after a nun named Walpurgis in Germany who spoke out against witchcraft and sorcery.  She was canonized on May 1, 779 – thus transforming pagan festivities into a saint’s day.

And then, of course, there was the Maypole dance and the May Queen (or Queen of the May) derived from old Anglo-Saxon celebrations, which, like the others, were fertility festivals.

I remember when my first grade class did a Maypole dance.  The girls wore pastel frocks; the boys dressed in pants and white shirts.   We wove around the pole, each holding a long strip of light-colored crepe-paper, ducking in and out of the ribbons as the boys circled in one direction and the girls in the other until the pole had been laced with the crepe-paper and we could dance no more.  In the fall of that school year we six-year-olds had to remember to add “under God” to the already-difficult-to-say Pledge of Allegiance - which transformed the incomprehensible words (what’s a “witch-it stands”?) into a public prayer -  to make sure we weren’t godless communists.  After that spring, the Maypole dance wasn’t performed in school.  It had become a symbol of May Day, which had become a symbol of communism.

But here in France, May Day is the workers’ day (La Fête du Travail), and it is signified by the lily of the valley (muguet) because, so it is said, King Charles IX was given lilies of the valley on May 1, 1561, and since he liked the flowers, he presented them to the ladies of his court every May 1 from then on.  Thus the other moniker for May Day is La Fête du Muguet - and on May 1 anyone can sell lilies of the valley without incurring retail regulations or paying taxes.

Yesterday when I went to Carrefour, the hypermarché (supermarket-department-store), displays of lilies of the valley stood in the front of the store.  Nearby, a prominent sign noted that the store would be closed on May 1.  I bought a small potted plant of muguets.  Then at the check-out counter after I had paid for my groceries, the cashier handed me the receipt – and a delicate fragrant muguet sprig tucked into a flower vial. 

This May Day in France has resurrected primary school memories from Poughkeepsie: the Maypole Dance, the transformation of the Pledge of Allegiance, the American association of May Day with communism, and a song from childhood: “White coral bells, upon a slender stalk...” 

Muguet sprig - Lilies of the Valley

9 comments:

  1. Wow, the only thing I recognized in this was the Maypole dance. Thanks for the history lesson!

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    1. I didn't know there were other dances associated with May Day until I moved to the SF Bay Area and went to performances of the Christmas Revels, who go by "The Revels" when it's not the holiday season. They celebrate May Day outdoors with Morris Dances - wonderful celebratory dancers who dance with bells on their legs, creating inviting rhythms. In pagan times the bells probably warded off the malevolent spirits.

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  2. I had no idea, very interesting;) I too, thought that May Day was all about candy cups and dancing, lol! Thank you!

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    1. I had no idea that May Day was celebrated with candy cups!

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  3. We moved into a neighborhood peppered with British and Scandinavian newcomers when I started grammar school. They had a tradition of folding a piece of construction paper into a cone, threading a curling ribbon through for handles, and filling with popcorn and hard candies, and topping with a garden flower or two. This May basket was then hung on a door knob of a neighbor, doorbell rung, and the giver would run and hide lest be found and kissed by the recipient. By the time I had reached 3 grade, this was a distant memory in the community. Shame. It was considered the sister holiday of Halloween/All Saints Day, 6 months opposite on the calendar.

    Of course, here in Hawaii, May Day is Lei Day! I wish I could package up the scents of the day and ship them to everyone!

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  4. I'm wondering where this custom came from. Thank you for providing this clue. I know that these 2 pagan festivals that morphed into May Day-Halloween have to do with sweet-giving, hiding, spirits, etc., but...where was it that you experienced these traditions (since it wasn't Hawaii)?

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  5. Wow. I knew a little about May Day as a pagan festival, but had no idea the worker's holiday originated in the U.S. Rather ironic. Thanks for the enlightening post.

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    1. It is ironic that May Day's workers' holiday originated in the US. So much was lost during the Red Scare of the 1950s, and we never recovered from it, even though communism fell in 1990.

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  6. I've awarded you the Liebster award for your beautiful essays and amazing life. I'm looking forward to reading more of your work!

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VHCflh1FImI/T51hMemnaYI/AAAAAAAAAHA/VpIwgwDM7So/s1600/liebsterblogaward.png

    The full post is at Rhymes With Tao here: http://rhymeswithtao.blogspot.com/2012/05/danke-fuer-die-liebster.html#.T6Kb56TZTUc

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