It's May, it's May, that glorious time of the year, when the earth wakes to the spring sunshine and the gardens of Queen Anne and Magnolia are lush and green, a blaze of color with blossoming trees and flowering shrubs.
May, when this side of the Atlantic celebrates Mother's Day on May 13. In Britain, Mothering Sunday, as it is called, is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent, on whatever date it happens to fall, but always before Easter. The celebration, like many old customs, dates from medieval times. Originally in honor of the mother church, it later developed into people honoring their own mothers with gifts of flowers and simnel cake, made from the ingredients left over from Shrove Tuesday's pancakes. Country churches hold services for children who bring their pets and violets to the altar to be blessed.
In Britain, many May Day celebrations have their roots in pagan rituals to do with springtime, agriculture, fertility and an excuse for yet another jolly good time. About 100 years ago, many of these customs were revived in British villages on the premise that people of the Industrial Age yearned for the peace and tranquility of the countryside. These customs are the last survival of the time when a poor but contented peasantry, their life rooted in the land they cultivated, celebrated the changing of the seasons with innocent fun and frivolity. And, to quote one Victorian, "It was the golden age of Bucolic contentment."
Today, the same customs are kept alive in the villages for everyone's enjoyment, especially the tourists. In all fairness, one must admit that many of the villages and their customs have changed little over the past 500 years. Though each community has a slightly different celebration, they all have a Maypole and Morris Men.
Imagine a row of thatched cottages facing the village green, a team of Morris Men leaping into the air in freshly laundered white shirts and trousers, the sun glinting on tiny bells strapped to their shins and ankles, while a group of white-clad children weave in and out around the Maypole, braiding colored ribbons which stream from the apex of the Maypole. You can hear the strains of an old folksong whose origins are quite forgotten, drifting out from the windows of the old half-timbered coaching inn.
The banging of the Morris Men's sticks is to frighten away evil spirits, their jumping in the air is to make the corn grow high, and their bells are to keep the birds away. It's all rooted in folklore, which includes beliefs, superstitions, legends and puzzle song. The very idea of nuts in May falls into this category because there are no nuts in May. Although England enjoys a profusion of nuts, the edible variety indigenous to Britain is the hazelnut (filbert), which is not gathered until October. There are mummers plays with traditional symbolic characters such as St. George, the Hobby Horse, a quack doctor and a rhyming fool, all part of the traditional jolly celebrations.
May Day customs vary from region to region, and May Day celebrations are not limited to May. Some may last into the summer, when the May Queen is crowned.
The village of Helston in Corn-wall boasts Flora Day celebrations, which take place through the streets of the town. Men in top hats and morn-ing coats and women in delightful summer dresses and hats dance through the streets and in and out of the houses to the Furry Dance tune played by the town band.
It's interesting to note that the Green Man, seen on many British pub signs, commemorates an important figure of the old springtime festivities. In England he was called Jack in the Green or Jack in the Bush. On May Day in 1894 at Lewisham, the Jack was a man encased in a tall framework shaped like a bottle, covered with ivy leaves and crowned with paper roses. The May Queen and her maidens danced round him while he revolved solemnly on his axis. In 18th-century London the black-faced chimney sweeps danced on May Day, led by a Jack in the Green. He was hidden inside a framework that might be as high as 10 feet, to which green boughs of holly and ivy were fastened, with flowers and ribbons at the top. All in all, a good excuse for a bit of fun and games!
Over the years I have engaged in a great deal of research for our radio program The British Hour. May Day, with words and music, was an annual favorite. My research covered everything from ancient May Day customs and celebrations to old English regional folk and puzzle songs. Country and May Pole dance tunes, bearing such strange titles as "Gathering Peascods" and "Shepherds Hay," and yes, "Here we go gathering nuts in May."
The information gained was invaluable when we organized an authentic two-day festival in English May for the merry merchants of Issaquah, transforming Front Street and the surrounding area into an English village complete with May Pole, Morris Men, a May King and Queen, and all the above-mentioned festivities and entertainments.
Perhaps next year we should revive May Day on Queen Anne Hill, using Rogers Park for the village green.
Meanwhile, enjoy this wonderful season. In the springtime, in the springtime, the only pretty ring time, when birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding. With a hey and a ho and a couple of hey noni noni's ...
TTFN
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