Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May Day


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By Akindman

“Isn’t it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool’s Day and ends with cries of “May Day!”?” ~ Unknown

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Last year we focused on the history of May Day and this year we will look at some quotes, lyrics, poems and a little of this and that – we hope you enjoy!

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“Love is fragile -- she was thinking -- but perhaps the pieces are saved, the things that hovered on lips, that might have been said. The new love-words, the tenderness learned, and treasured up for the next lover.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, May Day

May Day (May 1st) is celebrated in many places around the world. The traditions and stories surrounding May Day vary from place to place. There is, however, one thing that is similar in most celebrations – the use of Flowers!

One of the most popularly known May Day traditions is to hang a basket full of spring flowers and/or other small gifts on a neighbor’s doorknob. The trick is you don’t want the neighbor to see you! If you get caught, you are supposed to get a kiss.

"The world's favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May."
-  Edwin Way Teale
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"By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months.  All is at last in balance and all is serene.  The gardener is usually dead, of course."
-  Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman

"'Tis like the birthday of the world,
When earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes,
The air is all perfume:
There's crimson buds, and white and blue,
The very rainbow showers
Have turned to blossoms where they fell,
And sown the earth with flowers."
-  Thomas Hood

"You are as welcome as the flowers in May."
-  Charles Macklin
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"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
-  Robert Frost



"The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds.  For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May."
-  Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

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"What is so sweet and dear
As a prosperous morn in May,
The confident prime of the day,
And the dauntless youth of the year,
When nothing that asks for bliss,
Asking aright, is denied,
And half of the world a bridegroom is,
And half of the world a bride?"
-  William Watson, Ode in May, 1880

"Spring - an experience in immortality."
-  Henry D. Thoreau

"A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King."
-  Emily Dickinson

"When April steps aside for May,
Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fresh violets open every day:
To some new bird each hour we listen."
-  Lucy Larcom
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“It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
-  Mark Twain

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"Spring is God's way of saying, 'One more time!' "
-  Robert Orben

"Also known as May Eve, May Day, and Walpurgis Night, happens at the beginning of May.  It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life.  The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora.  The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green.  The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess.  Colors are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight."
-  Selena Fox, Beltane: Celebrating the Seasons

"Poetry is the silence and speech between a wet struggling root of a flower and a sunlit blossom of that flower."
-  Carl Sandburg
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"All furnished, all in arms;
All plum'd like estridges that with the wind
Bated like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls."
-  William Shakespeare, King Henry the Fourth, Part I


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"For the May Day is the great day,
Sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley
Will heed this song that calls them back...
Pass the cup, and pass the Lady,
And pass the plate to all who hunger,
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
Pass the cup of crimson wonder."
-  Jethro Tull, Cup of Wonder



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