May Day Memories
It isn't an official holiday in our country, but May Day has been celebrated throughout the Northern Hemisphere for hundreds of years, first as a raucous pagan celebration, then as a Christianized holy day, and finally as a secular nod to its varied roots. Now, May Day in the U.S. is celebrated to varying degrees, depending on which region of the country you live in, as a festive way to welcome spring.
When I was a young girl, virtually all of the kids in northeastern Nebraska made May baskets and delivered them to their friends' doorsteps on May 1st. Most often, May baskets were constructed from decorated paper cups with pipe cleaner handles, or they were folded and cut from brightly-colored construction paper, and filled with candy and popcorn. (The days of flower-filled May baskets were long gone, even in the mid-twentieth century.) I remember hurrying home from school to assemble May baskets so they could be delivered that evening before the sun set. Usually, Mom loaded us all up in the car and drove us around the neighborhood to each friend's house, where we placed a May basket on the front step, rang the doorbell, and ran back to the car as quickly as we could, to avoid being caught and kissed.
When my daughters were young, we still carried out the May Day tradition every year. A few days before the big day, we brainstormed ideas for unique May baskets, eventually spending an afternoon or evening putting them together so they were ready for delivery on the first day of May. (I seem to remember some one-of-a-kind pig baskets...) As time went by, though, we noticed that fewer and fewer people exchanged May baskets. Levi had little desire to make and deliver May baskets, so it has been several years since anyone in our immediate family has participated in May Day activities.
My research suggested that May baskets lost favor in this country during the Cold War, in the middle of the twentieth century, just because May Day was widely celebrated in Russia. In my opinion, though, May Day traditions are no longer popular because most modern moms simply don't have time to add the May basket ritual to their already-full schedules. By the time everyone gets home from school and work, no one has time or energy to make and deliver May baskets.
Except in Preschool. Preschool classrooms are perfect places to make May Day memories. Today, each of my students made two May baskets, one to keep and one to give away. Paula, one of my aides, is always looking for ways to clean out and use up our old craft supplies, so we covered some yellowed paper nut cups (the kids called them ketchup cups) with artificial flowers, gave each one a pastel pipe cleaner handle, and filled them with m&m's, skittles, tootsie rolls, and leftover Easter jelly beans.
Becky, my other aide, has always been eager to help get ready for a preschool version of a maypole dance, In the past, we have hung crepe paper streamers from indoor support posts or outdoor volleyball standards. In our version of a maypole dance, each child holds the end of a streamer as we walk in a circle, 'round and 'round the maypole. A maypole dance with intricate weaving is just too difficult for preschoolers, so we concentrate on holding tightly to our streamers so the wind doesn't catch them, while getting everyone to walk in the same direction at the same time, without passing the person directly in front. Just thinking about those logistics makes me a little tired, but four- and five-year-olds are always excited to try new activities.
On those occasions when we have been able to rig an outdoor maypole, we have often been thwarted by the wind or rain, and once, a tornado warning. It hasn't been too unusual to celebrate our may pole dance as much as a week late, just because of uncooperative weather. This year, we didn't even try, because our new school doesn't have an obvious pole that we can commandeer. Besides, meteorologists are predicting as much as eight inches of snow again tomorrow--a typical May Day in western Nebraska.
Happy May Day!
When I was a young girl, virtually all of the kids in northeastern Nebraska made May baskets and delivered them to their friends' doorsteps on May 1st. Most often, May baskets were constructed from decorated paper cups with pipe cleaner handles, or they were folded and cut from brightly-colored construction paper, and filled with candy and popcorn. (The days of flower-filled May baskets were long gone, even in the mid-twentieth century.) I remember hurrying home from school to assemble May baskets so they could be delivered that evening before the sun set. Usually, Mom loaded us all up in the car and drove us around the neighborhood to each friend's house, where we placed a May basket on the front step, rang the doorbell, and ran back to the car as quickly as we could, to avoid being caught and kissed.
When my daughters were young, we still carried out the May Day tradition every year. A few days before the big day, we brainstormed ideas for unique May baskets, eventually spending an afternoon or evening putting them together so they were ready for delivery on the first day of May. (I seem to remember some one-of-a-kind pig baskets...) As time went by, though, we noticed that fewer and fewer people exchanged May baskets. Levi had little desire to make and deliver May baskets, so it has been several years since anyone in our immediate family has participated in May Day activities.
My research suggested that May baskets lost favor in this country during the Cold War, in the middle of the twentieth century, just because May Day was widely celebrated in Russia. In my opinion, though, May Day traditions are no longer popular because most modern moms simply don't have time to add the May basket ritual to their already-full schedules. By the time everyone gets home from school and work, no one has time or energy to make and deliver May baskets.
Except in Preschool. Preschool classrooms are perfect places to make May Day memories. Today, each of my students made two May baskets, one to keep and one to give away. Paula, one of my aides, is always looking for ways to clean out and use up our old craft supplies, so we covered some yellowed paper nut cups (the kids called them ketchup cups) with artificial flowers, gave each one a pastel pipe cleaner handle, and filled them with m&m's, skittles, tootsie rolls, and leftover Easter jelly beans.
Becky, my other aide, has always been eager to help get ready for a preschool version of a maypole dance, In the past, we have hung crepe paper streamers from indoor support posts or outdoor volleyball standards. In our version of a maypole dance, each child holds the end of a streamer as we walk in a circle, 'round and 'round the maypole. A maypole dance with intricate weaving is just too difficult for preschoolers, so we concentrate on holding tightly to our streamers so the wind doesn't catch them, while getting everyone to walk in the same direction at the same time, without passing the person directly in front. Just thinking about those logistics makes me a little tired, but four- and five-year-olds are always excited to try new activities.
On those occasions when we have been able to rig an outdoor maypole, we have often been thwarted by the wind or rain, and once, a tornado warning. It hasn't been too unusual to celebrate our may pole dance as much as a week late, just because of uncooperative weather. This year, we didn't even try, because our new school doesn't have an obvious pole that we can commandeer. Besides, meteorologists are predicting as much as eight inches of snow again tomorrow--a typical May Day in western Nebraska.
Happy May Day!
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