I have vivid memories of celebrating May Day, and those memories must come from when I was a kindergartner or first grader, as we were living in our house in Southern Oregon at the time. On that first day of May, I would make little paper vases and then pick flowers to fill them up. Those bundle of flowers would then be hand delivered to our neighbors' doorsteps, where I would proceed to knock or ring their doorbell, and then run away, leaving my surprise behind me. There was something truly magical and exciting in those door-to-door adventures, and I would like to think now that I was delivering a little bit of happiness to someone's otherwise ordinary day in May.
Later in elementary school, when we lived in West Linn, just outside of Portland, I remember taking part in other May Day festivals, which included maypoles and other festivities. So I was excited when I received the email from Gabriela this year, saying that she was planning a May Day Celebration with Elsa's playgroup. And I was even more excited when I read that parents were invited.
Gabriela started the celebration with a game involving stepping stones and pictures of various objects in nature (flowers, frogs, ladybugs, etc.). A larger image was placed at each stepping stone, and Gabriela had a stack of smaller, matching images in her hand. Sara, one of the moms in our group, played the flute, and as the music filled the air, the children were to walk around in a circle and, in musical-chair fashion, were to claim a stepping stone once they heard the music stop. Much to my surprise, Elsa caught onto this concept rather quickly. However, she also had a strong preference for the image of the purple flower, so she would always slow down as she passed it, and once the music stopped, she would make a beeline for that particular stone. Once all of the children were in place, Gabriela drew a card from the stack, and the child standing on the matching image was given a special, small stone or gem of their own to keep and take home with them. Elsa ended up coming home with a different rock than the one she was originally given, but it is still sitting in her room.
After all children had their prized stones in hand, all were directed toward the picnic table, where they were each given a special May Day crown. Elsa was so very excited about this, and danced around happily with her crown on her head, blue and pink streamers flying behind her. But, because of my prepping of this entire celebration, she was most excited about the May pole. After a little walk through the woods, Sara leading us all with another tune on the flute, we made our way to the front yard, where the May pole was set up. All the children gathered around the pole and held a ribbon in their hand. As Sara played some more, Gabriela sang, and everyone walked around the May pole. Elsa was so intrigued with the music that she had kind of hard time staying in circular order (as you can see on the video), and the ribbons did not quite form the beautiful woven pattern I have witnessed on other May poles, but it was still a lovely celebration of spring.
After all the song and dance, we set up blankets on the lawn and brought together our potluck off food, including some beautifully baked bread that Gabriela provided. She had one massive, outstanding loaf, and then individual rolls which had little May poles stuck into the tops of them. Very cute. It ended up being quite the hot lunch, sitting in the beating sun, but we all had a good time, and I am so glad Elsa was able to participate. She talked about the May pole and wore her crown (which she still has) for days. I hope May Day is something we can continue to celebrate in years to come.
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