Thursday, May 1, 2008

May Day


Back when I was a little girl, we wove small baskets from construction paper, picked flowers from the garden, and early on May 1st we delivered them to neighbors--especially shut-ins--usually leaving them on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell, and running away as fast as we could so that the recipient couldn't see who left them flowers.


Imagine my surprise when I went to look up information about May Day to find that in most of the world it is a holiday for Organized Labor...usually called Labor Day. Hmmm. Now I have nothing against labor, organized or not, but what does it have to do with May Day? In the interest of spreading knowledge, I herewith provide you, my readers with a short explanation of the traditional May Day.


The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, as in the Celtic celebration of Beltane, and the Walpurgis Night of the Germanic countries. Many pre-Christian indigenous celebrations were eventually banned or Christianized during the process of Christianization in Europe. As a result, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on 1 May.

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring (season), May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.~~Wikipedia~May Day

For additional info on May Day check out http://www.spiritualitea.com/sabbats/mayday.shtml
The info on this page sounds much more suitable to a writer of erotic romance!

I was roaming through my usual bloglists and came across the most wonderful pictures of Egypt on Jenyfer Matthews blog here. They're all from a trip she made to Luxor. Go. Drool.

Yesterday evening as usual, we did laundry at the local laundromat. I just have to say that I HATE laundry. I do not watch TV at home, but at the laundromat, I'm usually subjected to Judge Judy. Somebody please explain to me why normal sane people would take their case to a televised court so that they can play out their insanities in the world court? Where do they find these fools? Bad enough that your problems are a matter of public record. Why on earth would you want to be on TV? Is is just me or are we demonstrating a burgeoning lack of good taste these days? BTW, I have nothing against the judge. She's a pretty classy lady.

After the laundry, we went to eat. Now last week when we went to RT, the house hunk and I each had an envelope to put our receipts in as much of the cost is deductible on income taxes. The HH gave me his envelope. Day before yesterday he demanded it back so he could reconcile something on the bank account. I spent THREE HOURS looking for it.

Guess where I found it? ON HIS DESK!!! Seems he forgot that he took it back earlier...

So. In reparation of my lost time... he took me to dinner. Don Pablos (Mexican food)--it was excellent.

On that note, I'll close. Blessings on your day.

Anny

Don't forget to stop by Amarinda and Kelly's blogs. Then pop over to OhGetAGrip to check out the latest installment in the Erotica vs. Porno debate.

4 comments:

  1. We have the labor day weekend upon us - yipeee! It's all to do with communism and the workers etc - I don't care what it is as long as we get the day off.

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  2. I haven't been to Don Pablos is quite a while...hope you ate a cheesy nacho for me:)

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  3. Went to Jenyfer's site. WOW. Excellent pictures.

    You've been very informative today, dear. I didn't know all that about May day. I mean, I knew generally about baskets but forgot that was May 1st and such.

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  4. Thanks for the plug, Anny. Between us, hubby and I took over 200 pictures. It was tough to pick which to post on the blog.

    May day is a holiday here in Egypt - many people were off of work and the streets were blissfully quiet.

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