Goes to the field at break of day
And washes in the dew from the hawthorn tree,
Will ever after handsome be.”
Even though May is dedicated to Our Lady we still like to celebrate the first of May with the traditional May Day theme
There are many interpretations of the first May Day, and many different theories and origins, all with the same principle ~ people through the years loved to celebrate the coming of spring on the first day of May!
Maypole dancing evolved into Ribbon dancing around the maypole in the 18th century, and is possibly derived from traditional and 'art' dance forms popular in Italy and France.
In old European villages, the youth would go into the woods and cut down a tree, removing the branches and covering it with violets. At daybreak they blew horns and celebrated and the towns would know May Day had arrived.
By the Middle ages, English villages had a May Pole, and everyone ~ from adults to children would all go into the woods to select the tree, making it a parade and singing songs as they went back to town. Often large cities like London would leave the maypole up for an entire year, so it was ready for the next years may day dance.
In Yorkshire, dancers gather in a circle, each holding a coloured ribbon attached to a much smaller pole. As the dance commences the ribbons are intertwined and braided either on to the pole itself or into a web around the pole. The dancers may then retrace their steps exactly in order to unravel the ribbons or leave them as a beautiful design on the pole.
Today May Day and dancing around the May Pole are still traditions in many European Countries and the United Kingdom.
In our home each year we usually have our Maypole outside and sang as we skip around it but for an inside version this works fairly well:
♥ Hang a Maypole from the ceiling using crepe paper streamers. AS you walk or skip around the Maypole you can sing,
♥ Walking around the Maypole, Walking around the Maypole, Walking Around the Maypole, Going 'round and 'round.
♥ You can substitute dance, skip, etc. for "walk". Believe it or not, when you walk around in a circle the streamers create a "pole". For added fun, have a person probably an adult or older child stand in the middle and get wrapped in the Maypole. To untangle, simply reverse directions.
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| An old photo of a maypole cake and doll maypole I made |
♥ Make Mayday baskets we have made cornucopia ones, filled with flowers and stickers and poems and paper filled with paper gifts in the past
Get the children to decorate and fill some May baskets. You can the them leave the baskets on the door knobs (or steps) of friends or family members. Here are a number of simple ways to make May baskets.
CONE BASKETS - either use a plain colored cone party hat, or make your own cone by cutting out half circles and wrapping them around into cone shaped. Add paper or Chenille handles
CUP BASKETS – use paper, Styrofoam, yogurt or margarine cups for baskets. Poke holes on opposite sides of the cups and tie on handles.
CIRCLE BASKETS – use large cut paper circles or large doilies. Tape a ribbon handle to opposite sides of the circle. When held up the circle will fold into a open-ended basket.
BOX BASKETS – use small box bottoms, cut-down milk cartons, or berry baskets. Add handles and decorate.
♥ Make May Day Crowns ~
Let every child be Kind or Queen of the May by making a flower crown to wear.
Cut the centers out of paper plates and have the children paint both sides of the rims green. (or use green paper plates)
Cut various colors of tissue paper into small circles.
Then let the children crumple the circles and glue them on their paper plate rims to make flowers.
Variation: Glue strips of colored tissue or crepe paper streamers to the sides and backs of their crowns.
Variation: Place real flowers on their crowns by making slits in the rim so that the flowers can be poked through.
♥ Simple Game~
RING AROUND THE ROSIE
Here is an adaptation of the usual “Ring Around the Rosie” game for May Day.
Have your children stand in a circle around a pretend Maypole.
Let one child stand in the middle and choose the action at the end of rhyme.
As children march around the circle recite the following rhyme.
“Ring around the rosie.
A pocket full of posies.
Flowers, flowers
All (fall down, twirl around, bend way down, touch the ground, etc.)
Choose another child to stand in the middle and repeat the chant.
♥ Craft ~
In the past, children used to celebrate May Day by having hoop races -- now you can, too.
Supplies:
Plastic hoop (hula hoop)
Ribbon
Small bells
12-inch wooden dowel
Use a plastic hoop and decorate it the way children did hundreds of years ago.
Cut 6-inch lengths of thin ribbon. Tie as many ribbons as you can to the hoop, all the way around. Make sure the knots are on the inside of the hoop so they won't get in the way when the hoop rolls.
Tie a tiny bell to the end of every third or fourth ribbon.
Practice rolling your May Day hoop by touching it with the dowel. How fast can you go? Invite your friends to a race!
♥ For more activities~
Colouring page
Wreath colouring page
May day word search
May Day Anagrams
May Day Crossword and Answers key
Picture crossword and Answer key
Sudoku and Answers and Easy Sudoku
And to keep the Blessed Mother in the picture this site has a list of other sites that have colouring pictures of Mary
These are a couple of our past Mary themes:
Fatima and May Crowning of Mary
May Crowning and Bookcase display
For a sugar filled idea~
Take a plastic baggie and fill it with candy and then in the center of it tie a pipe cleaner and make it look like a butterfly!! Wrap the pipe cleaner in the middle of it!!
Simple Song~
"I Made a May Basket" (sung to: "A-Tisket, A-Tasket") A-tisket, a-tasket, I made a May basket. I filled it up with flowers bright And hung it on the door just right.
THE MAY QUEEN
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
To-morrow ’ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year;
Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest merriest day,
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
There’s many a black, black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine;
There’s Margaret and Mary, there’s Kate and Caroline;
But none so fair as little Alice in all the land they say,
So I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake,
If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break;
But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay,
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
As I came up the valley whom think ye should I see
But Robin leaning on the bridge beneath the hazel-tree?
He thought of that sharp look, mother, I gave him yesterday,
But I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
He thought I was a ghost, mother, for I was all in white,
And I ran by him without speaking, like a flash of light.
They call me cruel-hearted, but I care not what they say,
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
They say he’s dying all for love, but that can never be;
They say his heart is breaking, mother–what is that to me?
There’s many a bolder lad ’ill woo me any summer day,
And I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
Little Effie shall go with me to-morrow to the green,
And you’ll be there, too, mother, to see me made the Queen;
For the shepherd lads on every side ’ill come from far away,
And I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
The honeysuckle round the porch has woven its wavy bowers,
And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers;
And the wild marsh-marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray,
And I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
The night-winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow-grass,
And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass;
There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the livelong day,
And I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
All the valley, mother, ’ill be fresh and green and still,
And the cowslip and the crowfoot are over all the hill,
And the rivulet in the flowery dale ’ill merrily glance and play,
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
So you must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear,
To-morrow ’ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year;
To-morrow ’ill be of all the year the maddest merriest day,
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.
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