Mary Mason Campbell writes in "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac," illustrated by Tasha Tudor: "May Day has been celebrated merrily for many ages, from fertility festivals of the ancient Egyptians, and feasts of the Romans in honor of their goddess Flora, to the Middle Ages when the people of the British Isles danced about Maypoles. The English decked their villages with flowers and danced in the streets with gay abandon, greatly encouraged by enthusiastic drinking and feasting. In New England the first settlers, the Pilgrims, did not believe in such pagan festivities, and there was no thought of celebrating May Day until one boisterous Thomas Morton set foot on the shores of Boston Bay. He and his crew set up a Maypole on May Day 1627, celebrating their arrival with dancing and other raucous revelry. The Maypole is said to have been a pine tree eighty feet tall wreathed with wild flowers, vines, and ribbons and adorned with poems especially composed for the occasion. The merriment shocked Governor Bradford and his Puritan followers. Further celebrations of May Day in New England were abandoned until the nineteenth century when children played at dancing around the Maypole and renewed the old, old custom of filling May Baskets with flowers and candies for their friends."
Tasha Tudor recalls in "A Time to Keep" her family's dancing around the maypole and delivering May Baskets to neighbors. . . .
May was also a time to plant her garden. . . .
A time to finally be out of doors enjoying elevenish parties under the trees. . . .
In Tasha's "Around the Year" she shows us more idyllic scenes from her life and imagination. . . .
As are the Azaleas. . . .
Gabriel shares his birthday in May. . . .
In the U.S. we celebrate Mother's Day in May as well. My mother will have been gone now for 22 Mother's Days this year. . .
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Take Joy!
