MAY-DAY.
Ho! the merrie first of Maie
Bryngs the daunce and blossoms gaie,
To make of lyfe a holiday.
IN the merry heart of youth the old song still finds an echo, and this
day, with its relics of pagan customs, celebrating, in the advent of
spring, nature’s renewed fertility, is a festival full of fun for the
children.
Some of the ceremonies of May-day, handed down from generation to
generation, were brought to America in old colonial days by the
English, but owing, perhaps, to the stern puritanical training of most
of the early settlers, the customs did not thrive here as in the mother
country, and many of them have died out altogether.
May-day is one of the many holidays still celebrated, that originated
among the pagans ages ago, and it is said that the practice of
choosing a May-queen and crowning her with flowers is a remnant of the
ceremonies in honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers, which were held
in Rome the last four days of April and the first of May.
There was, at one time, a very pretty custom observed in Merrie
England of fastening bunches of flowering shrubs and branches of
sycamore and hawthorn upon the doors of those neighbors whose good
lives and kindly habits were thus recognized by their friends.
The maids and matrons of England formerly had a way of their own of
observing the day. On the first of May they would all go trooping out
with the earliest rays of the morning sun, to bathe their faces in the
magic dew, which glistened upon the grass once a year only, and was
supposed to render the features moistened with it beautiful for the
next twelve months.
When the writer was a wee little girl there lived next door to her home
two old maiden ladies, who always kept a bottle of May-dew among their
treasures. Although the ladies in question had long since passed that
period when maidens are supposed to be lovely, superstitious persons
might have found confirmation of a belief in the power of the dew, when
they looked upon the sweet and kindly faces of these old maids. Faith
in the fabled efficacy of May-dew will probably lose its last adherents
when the two old ladies, very aged now, leave this world; but other
pretty customs, from which all the superstitious elements seem to have
departed, should not be allowed to die out, and we intend this chapter
on May-day sports as a reminder that May-day is a holiday and should be
fittingly celebrated by the older girls as well as the little children,
who, in these times, seem to be the only ones to remember the day.
=May-day Sports.=
A May-day custom, and a very pretty one, still survives among the
children in our New England States. It is that of hanging upon the
door-knobs of friends and neighbors pretty spring-offerings in the
shape of small baskets filled with flowers, wild ones, if they can be
obtained; if not, the window-gardens at home are heavily taxed to
supply the deficiency. When the dusky twilight approaches, it is time
for the merry bands of young folks to start out on this lovely errand
of going from house to house, leaving behind them the evidence of their
flying visit in these sweetest of May-offerings. Silently approaching
a door, they hang a May-basket upon the knob and, with a loud rap, or
ring of the bell, scamper off, and flee as though for life.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.]
[Illustration: The Straw Basket.]
These little Mayers are sometimes pursued, but few are ever caught,
for the recipients of the baskets know that to capture a child, carry
her into the house and treat her to sweetmeats, usually dear to the
youthful palate, will not compensate the little prisoner for being held
captive and thereby missing the fun going on among the other children.
=How to Make May-baskets.=
The dainty little baskets which are used by the Mayers are generally
of home manufacture. They are made of almost any material, and in a
variety of shapes. Some, constructed of card-board, are covered with
crimped tissue-paper, or with gilt, silver, or colored paper. They are
never large unless flowers are plentiful, and even in that case a small
basket is prettier.
Our first illustration represents a May-basket made of straws. Fig. 33
shows the frame of this basket, for which three straws seven inches
long are required; these are sewed together, two and one-half inches
from the bottom, forming a tripod. For the sides eighteen straws are
necessary, six on each side, of graduating lengths; the three top
straws being five inches long and the lowest ones three and one-half
inches. These are sewed to the frame, log-cabin fashion, one upon
another.
The bottom of the basket is made of a three-cornered piece of
card-board cut to fit; three straws, two and one-half inches long, hold
the base of the frame in position. A handle formed of three ribbons
finishes off this May-basket very prettily; a ribbon is tied to each
corner of the basket; the other ends meeting form a bow, as shown in
the illustration.
=Birch-bark Baskets=
are quite appropriate for wild flowers, and one in the shape of a canoe
can be made from a strip of bark six and one-half inches long and four
inches wide. Fig. 34 gives the pattern of this basket. The dotted lines
show where the ends are to be sewed together; a ribbon sewed to each
end of the canoe serves for a handle.
=Card-board Baskets,=
cut after the pattern Fig. 35, can be covered with gilt, silver, or
crimped tissue-paper as desired; paper lace or fringe is sometimes
placed around the edges of baskets of this kind, as a border to rest
the flowers upon. The card-board basket shown in illustration is joined
together by button-hole stitching of colored-silk floss; slits are cut
in two sides and a ribbon slipped through, the ends of which are tied
in bow-knots to hold them in place.
[Illustration: Fig 34. The Birch-bark Basket.]
=May-day Combat.=
This game, although suggested by the ceremonies which, according to
Waldron, usher in the month of May in the Isle of Man, is entirely new
and bids fair to become popular, as it combines the elements of beauty,
sentiment and mirth.
A number of young people separate into two parties, each having its
queen; one the Queen of May, the other Queen of Winter. The May-queen
and her attendants should be decked with flowers, Winter and her
retinue being without decoration. Equipped with the appropriate
implements of warfare between the two seasons, namely, a wreath of
flowers for spring and a ball of raw cotton, or wool, representing
snow, for winter, the contending forces draw up in opposing lines,
the space between being about twelve feet. Each line is headed by its
respective queen, who holds her missile in her hand.
[Illustration: The Card-board Basket.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.]
The game is commenced by the two queens simultaneously tossing the
wreath and ball to someone in the opposite line, whose name is called
as the missile is thrown. Should the person to whom it is thrown fail
to catch it, she is made prisoner and must do battle on the other side,
being released only when she succeeds in catching the missile belonging
to her own party.
When the wreath and ball are caught, they are instantly tossed back
to the opposite rank, and so the game goes on. Hostilities must cease
when prisoners are being taken or released, to be recommenced when both
sides announce themselves ready.
If either queen is captured she is ransomed by the return of all the
prisoners taken on her side; should she have no prisoners to release,
the game is ended.
If the May-queen and her forces are defeated, they must strip off their
floral decorations and give them to the victors, who, decked in these
trophies, become the representatives of Spring, and the Queen of Winter
is made Queen of May and is crowned by her vanquished and dethroned
opponent. The former May-queen and her retinue, after offering their
congratulations, must serve as attendants on the triumphant queen and
do her bidding.
When the May-queen proves victorious the programme is reversed, and
Winter and her party become the subjects of May.
=The May-pole.=
An old writer, speaking of the May-games held in England, says, “Their
cheefest jewell is their Maie-poole,” and to leave the May-pole out
of our list of May-sports would indeed deprive the day of one of its
most important and prettiest features. The appropriate place for the
May-pole is, of course, out of doors; yet the climate in most of
our Northern States is so changeable and uncertain it may be found
necessary for comfort to hold the festivities in the house, and in
that case the following directions for erecting the pole in a room of
moderate dimensions will be found useful.
=How to Erect a May-pole in the House.=
A May-pole from ten to twelve feet high is as tall as the ceilings of
most rooms will admit.
The pole should be round, smooth, and about five inches in diameter at
the base, growing gradually smaller toward the top.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.]
For its support a wooden box is necessary, the average size being three
feet long, two feet wide, and one foot high. Remove the top of the
box, and directly in the centre of it cut a hole large enough to admit
the pole. Take two sticks, two inches wide, and long enough to fit
lengthwise in the box, and two shorter ones fitting the box crosswise,
and nail them securely in the position shown in Fig. 36, driving the
nails from the outside of the box. Slip the pole through the hole which
has been cut in the top, and then stand it in an upright position
between the four sticks in the centre of the box (Fig. 37). Be sure
that the pole stands perfectly straight; then, before nailing down the
top, fill the box with sand, bricks, or stones, packing them tightly
around the pole; this will give sufficient weight to prevent its
tipping. Nail the top on, and cover the box with moss or green cloth,
and bank it up with flowers.
=How to Dress a May-pole.=
In olden times the May-poles were painted in alternate stripes
of yellow and black, but a white pole is prettier and shows the
decorations to better advantage. Tack the ends of eight or ten
variously colored ribbons, one and one-half inch wide, around the pole
near the top. For a pole ten feet high the ribbons should be four yards
long. Around where the ribbons are fastened on, suspend a wreath of
flowers, as shown in Fig. 38. Decorate the extreme tip of the pole
with gaily colored streamers, or small flags.
=May-pole Dance.=
An even number of persons are required for this dance; half the number
take the end of a ribbon in the right hand and half in the left; they
then stand facing alternately right and left. When the dance commences,
each dancer facing the right passes under the ribbon held by the one
opposite facing the left; she then allows the next person going to the
left to pass under her ribbon, and so, tripping in and out, under and
over, the ribbons are woven around the pole.
After continuing for a while, according to the above directions, the
dancers separate into two equal divisions, and each party, independent
of the other, plaits a strip which hangs loosely from the pole.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.]
In performing this variation the two parties stand on either side of
the pole, and all those facing the right pass on in that direction,
going in and out as at first, until the last person going to the right
has passed the last person going to the left in her division; then,
transferring the ribbons to their other hands, they all turn and
reverse the order. Thus they continue, going back and forth until the
plait is about a foot in length, when another change is made by the
two parties joining forces again; this time, all those facing the left
proceed in that direction, passing under the ribbons of all the others
who are going to the right, thus forming two circles, one within the
other. After going twice around the pole in this order, the dancers
composing the inner circle take the outside and the others pass beneath
their ribbons, again circling the pole twice; then, after going through
the first figure once more the dance may be ended, or the whole order
may be reversed, and the ribbons, in that way, be unplaited again.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.]
An appropriate song, with words set to a dancing air, should be sung by
those taking part in the May-pole dance.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: SUMMER]
[Illustration]