Happy May Day!!

SmileDamnit

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who grew up celebrating May Day by leaving baskets on porches?? I'm beginning to think it's an Iowan thing because everyone in Denver looks at me like I'm a nerd when I get all sorts of excited about them. 

Bueller??

lyndausvi

Never heard of the tradition.

JCbride2015

Me either.  How does it work?

SmileDamnit

I can't for the life of me find the origins of the real tradition, but growing up in Iowa we would make "baskets" (either out of construction paper or paper cups, etc.) and fill them with treats & flowers & such, then drop them on the door steps of friends/family & ring the doorbell & run and hide. So random, in retrospect, but I freakin' LOVED it! I have a childhood friend who lives in Brooklyn now that posted a May Day basket picture her daughter made on FB today and said it's her mission to bring the tradition to the East Coast but said the novelty is lost on her friends. Oh well, at least we have the memories

KeptInStitches

We made May Day baskets out of construction paper and filled them with candy when I was a kid.

pinkcow13

Aww, that sounds nice! Maybe the tradition will make itself to my neck of the woods- I'm not far from Brooklyn!

KeptInStitches

Haha, whoops. Fake city. I'm in the Northern Plains.

ETA: Unless your comment was not on my fake city listed on my Knot profile because apparently 12345 is GE in Schenectady, NY.

MairePoppy

May Day isn't a new tradition for the east coast; it's a forgotten tradition. When I was in grammar school, in MA, we made paper cone May baskets, filled with wildflowers or paper flowers and sometimes candy.  Back in the 60s,  we all walked to and from school. We were supposed to hang the baskets on someones doorknob on the way home. For gym class the older kids made a Maypole out of a wooden pole with crepe paper fastened at the top. The younger children took turns winding and unwinding the paper around the pole. In some folk traditions, the dancers weave complex patterns with the ribbons, but we weren't that coordinated. 

In some Catholic schools, kids still have the May Crowning of Mary. The month of May is devoted to Mary and May Day is the kickoff. The children dress up in their Easter or First Communion clothes.  Usually an older girl and boy is chosen to place a crown of roses on the statue of Mary. The other children bring flowers from home to present to Mary. Hymns are sung as the children process. Usually, the rosary or abbreviated form of the rosary is said. In the old days, this was an elaborate event. My husband has pictures of his Catholic school days, with a hundred or so children, all dressed in white participating. The girls who were selected to crown Mary, wore borrowed wedding gowns and veils. Many people from the parish would attend and proceed to morning mass after the crowning.

SmileDamnit

Thanks, @MairePoppy! Interesting stuff!

CMGragain

I am from Iowa.  Of course, we made May baskets!
The celebration of May Day is a Scandinavian thing.  It was discouraged in the 1950's and early 1960's because of the anti-communist feeling.  May Day is Russian Independence Day.  Eisenhower actually tried to get it officially banned!
I was also a huge fan of Frank L. Baum's Oz books, which I found in the public library of Bartlesville, OK.  We lived there for less than a year, and I was told in other towns that they weren't considered proper reading for children!  I had to buy them with my allowance money.  They are now my son's treasured possessions, and they are standard for all public libraries.  It seems that the land of OZ was a communist society!  (Well, I'm afraid that it was!)  If you really want to offend your feminist sensibilities, try reading "The Land of Oz".  It was written around 1904, and it was very anti-suffragette! 
The 1950s was an interesting time.


"Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That darling month when ev'ryone throws
Self-control away.
It's time to do
A wretched thing or two,
And try to make each precious day
One you'll always rue!
It's May! It's May!
The month of "yes you may,"
The time for ev'ry frivolous whim,
Proper or "im."
It's wild! It's gay!
A blot in ev'ry way.
The birds and bees with all of their vast
Amorous past
Gaze at the human race aghast,
The lusty month of May."

ohannabelle

We did the May basket hanging on doors thing when I was little. It seemed to just disappear during the 70s. Sad. I hate seeing happy traditions vanishing.

ElcaB

To me, May Day is all about getting wasted and celebrating the end of the semester. 

Of course, college days are over for this Knottie --- but that doesn't mean I can't still get wasted. 

[Deleted User]

I came home yesterday and there was a paper cone hanging on my door with flowers in it! I used to have my boys make them when they were young and now it seems the neighborhood kids (we have a lot of them) are continuing the tradition. It was a great thing to come home to.

SmileDamnit

mauraacro said:

I came home yesterday and there was a paper cone hanging on my door with flowers in it! I used to have my boys make them when they were young and now it seems the neighborhood kids (we have a lot of them) are continuing the tradition. It was a great thing to come home to.

Yaaaay!!! The tradition IS alive