“There’s her cousin, an she were to possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December.” William Shakespeare
Dating back to pagan times as a festival of flowers, May Day, the first of the month, has long been celebrated as a European spring festival. As usual, the Greeks got there first: this was the day of the goddess Maia. The eldest of the Pleiades, mother of Zeus by Hermes she welcomed the month of Maios, May. She was later venerated by the Romans, becoming the spring goddess of flowers, Flora whose festival ran from 28 April to 2 May.
By the time the Roman legions overran much of northern Europe, the Celts had long established early May as a joyous time, the arrival of summer, seeding of crops having taken place, vegetation bursting forth.
Prominent among the spring display was a small tree, Crataegus monogyna, with fragrant hermaphrodite white flowers later producing prolific red berries. Thus what became today the prosaic Common Hawthorn was known as May or Maythorn.
In celebrations small and large, a May Queen would be selected, crowned with a wreath of Mayflower. Strangely, in some areas of the British Isles bringing these blossoms indoors was held to being calamity on the house.
Prominent in the celebrations were dances around a striped “Maypole.” Decorated with flowers and suspended ribbons, the suspended ends of these ribbons were held by lads and lasses who, in their dancing, twined the erect pole with an intricate pattern. Since this “Maypole” was a distinctly phallic symbol of spring fertility, one can only wonder at the number of so-named pubs to say nothing of the dancing participants, in modern times often reduced to small children . . . It appears, however, that the renown British bureaucracy has yet to arise to the occasion.
May Day has not meant much on the western side of the broad Atlantic. Certainly Mayflower was the famous ship that brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620. But masses of flowers already bloomed there, the Trailing Arbutus, also known as the Mayflower, beloved of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Today, Epigaea repens is the provincial flower of Nova Scotia and state flower Massachusetts. Another perennial familiar to early colonists was labeled Mayflower. Podophyllum pedatum of hardwood forest floors produces an umbrella like leaf below which blooms a white flower in that month, followed by a yellow berry. Compounding the eastern North American confusion still further are plentiful plantings of native Crataegus. These are joined by a selection of ornamental introductions . . .
Back in Mother Europe, May Day is celebrated as a national holiday by many nations there. It was designated as International Labour Day by the early union movement in the late 19th century. Having become popular among socialists, communists, anarchists and fellow travellers it became anathema in the United States and Canada where Labour Day falls on the first Monday in September.
However in France, May Day is La Fête du Travail, also La Fête du Muguet, dating back to 1561 Charles XI as a symbol of spring. It is symbolized by Convallaria majalis, Lily-of-the-Valley, known as ‘muguet.’
And we have the French to thank for the radio international distress signal. “Mayday” repeated three times originated in 1923 is from the French m’aider, or “help me!” It can be heard clearly over background noise and replaced the previously used Morse code SOS.
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
