Good Earthkeeping, by Tasha Halpert –
When I was a child in grade school, each year our music teacher organized May Day celebrations. Every class participated and a May Queen was selected from among the girls in the ninth, the topmost grade. The younger children had their own maypole. I found it hopelessly confusing. You had to go over one and under the next as you wound your ribbon around the pole, weaving it into the others until there was only a little left. After rehearsals, I wasn’t chosen to do it—much to my relief.
There were dances and songs—I still have the printed paper program in a scrapbook made for me by a devoted relative. The songs were of British origin and invoked the days of “lasses and lads” who met and parted though the specifics were a mystery to my young mind. No one talked of the fertility symbols or the meaning behind the rituals centered around the day we were celebrating.
The first of May is the midpoint between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. Nature is pushing forward. The increase of light reflects the brightness of the days that begin their obvious decline around the first of August. In the northern hemisphere there are many celebrations associated with this date. They reach far back in the history of humanity, symbolizing our connection with the Earth and its fertility.
Most recent is, of course, the “May Day” workers’ celebrations of the former Soviet Union. My mother and I were in Moscow on that date 26-years ago. I remember the colorful flags hanging everywhere, and the crowds of people in Red Square. However, from far back in human history, May Day has been one of the great spring celebrations of Europe and the British Isles. It is associated with fertility for both crops and farm animals, promoted through ancient rituals, many of which involved fire.
In these modern times we believe more in fertilizer than in fertility rituals. Few people these days will dance around a maypole—an obvious phallic symbol—or go off into the woods with a partner to insure that the fertility of land and pasture will continue. There is no need. Supermarkets are stocked year round with almost every seasonal vegetable and fruit. No need to wait until June for strawberries or fall for apples. Those who have never experienced this timing cannot miss it, but in some ways I do.
Yesterday, Stephen and I drove along a wooded country road in the sunshine. The light illuminated the unfolding blossoms of the trees clustered around it. The cloudless blue sky above and the sunlight filtering through the branches above us lifted our hearts and filled us with joy. Summer with its own delights is in the wings; spring is on the stage revealing its special beauty now. It seems important to take time to notice this delicate time of unfolding.
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