When I was very young, in the late '50s/early ‘60s, I can remember making little paper baskets, filling them with treats and taking them around to friends’ houses, where I would leave them on the porch - one basket for each friemd. This was a May Day (1st of May) celebration. We would do this early in the morning, before school if it was a school day. It was always such fun to come back home and see what had been left for you.
I haven’t seen or heard of such a May Day celebration in decades.
Did anyone else celebrate May Day in this way in your communities?
My mom would make Sima, a finnish drink made with yeast, sugar, water and a few raisins. When it was ready, then we’d note it was May Day and have a nice drink. Maybe a picnic. That was about it.
Yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen up to my elbows in hamburger for the cookout we were having for my parents. The doorbell rang and I told my husband to let my parents in. He said that no one was there. I went running out all excited and yelling for husband to get my flowers from the porch. He was adorably confused but came in holding three flowers that we had planted a few days ago. Our seven year old son had May Day’d me! He did the same for grandma when she got to our house. It’s been our tradition my whole life.
We used to have May Day play days in grade school. Lots of running around outside, playing games like Red Rover, cupcakes and little prizes for winning races and such. It was also very sweet.
The public school, at the top of my street, invites the neighbours to their May Day celebrations every year. It’s really fun, with each grade doing something.
It culminates with a May pole dance complete with complicated ribbon weaving via dancing. It’s lovely to watch! (It’s also fun to listen to them practise in the lead up, each day, dissolving into fits of laughing. Lots of restarting.)
Not growing up there, but a chance to visit Potsdam, DDR, on May Day in I think 1971. I was illegally in the country, as I had no visa except to transit on the autobahn, but I pulled off at the Potsdam exit, with an explanation in mind if I got caught. But it was May Day, and anyone who might have patrolled was in full dress uniform marching in a parade.
We were totally conspicuous. Our car had French plates (alll cars legally entering East Germany had to display German plates, even if only for a day) and we were clearly not dressed like East Germans, either, and people dressed in their holiday finery paid a great deal of attention to our western shoes. We walked around in the crowds for an hour or two, regretting we had no ostmarks with which to buy ice cream. Then got in the car and back onto the autobahn bound for Poland, without incident. So on the most festive holiday of the year, a rare chance to see East Germany up close…
I never heard of this…until yesterday, when my co-teacher at Sunday school asked the kids about it. They knew nothing about this tradition, which didn’t surprise me at all but did surprise her (and disappointed her a bit, too). She was even more surprised when I admitted I knew nothing about it either.
She’s in her late sixties I think.
She also said the best part was ringing the doorbell and then running away.
As a little kid in a small town, the tradition of handmade baskets containing flowers was alive and well. Leave on the porch of a female you like (Mom and/or a girl you had a crush on), ring bell, run. (We had huge lilac trees that were a great source for blooms.)
The baskets might be made of wide woven strips of construction paper or folded/cut out of single piece of regular paper. Taught how to make these in school.
Moving to the 'burbs later, a few kids did this, but not many.
I wondered if maybe the Halloween candy scare might have impacted our tradition of leaving little treats, usually homemade, on people’s doorsteps. But that wouldn’t explain why floral offerings would have stopped.
It’s a shame it seems to be something relegated to the past. I always looked forward to it every year.
As kids in Lincoln NE in the 70s, we made May Day baskets out of woven construction paper strips, filled them with candy (usually jelly beans) and left them on the porches of all the neighbors, doing the doorbell-ring-and-run-away for each.
Then once the parents overseeing the mayhem went back inside, all the kids would go raid the porches of all the neighbors who obviously weren’t home. Suckers.
In a city not far from here, some folks make a big deal about the start of the Indianapolis 500 festivities. Here in Anderson, there was a big ceremony on May 1st, celebrating the life and burial place of Ray Harroun, who won the very first Indy 500 in 1911. Corky Coker of Coker Tires brought in his replica of Harroun’s Marmon Wasp racer. A big metal plaque was unveiled.
I have a vague recollection of construction paper baskets in early grade school. I think it was something to take home to our moms.
However, there’s a group of Pagans in Berkeley who hold a potluck and Maypole dance every year in Codornices park, up in the Berkeley hills. You should all go next year. This year, there weren’t enough Pagans to do the dance.
