Today bore witness to Mother Natures remarkable annual transformation from Spring into Summer. Today my wife and I travelled to the City of Southampton for no other reason than we did not know the place very well and simply wanted to see it.
We left in the morning with a thick heavy clinging mist carpeting the landscape and on our return journey everything had turned a vivid lush green as leaves on just about every variety of tree burst out into the world in proclamation that Summer has arrived.
Signs that Summer was fast approaching have been apparent all week. Swallows have already arrived following their long migratory flight from South Africa, Cowslip in hedgerows and verges have grown from nothing into a tall forest of delicate white flower in less than a week. Gardeners will have not failed to notice that additional spurt in the growth of grass of the last few days. All in all it is as if Mother Nature has been lining her troops up for a grand parade to announce the last chilly tendrils of Winter have finally lost their grip.
Although officially Summer does not start until June, nature has a way of disregarding artificial dates, nature has its own timetable irrespective of political diktat.
In modern society as we busily scurry to and fro, we may not take too much notice on the passing of another day but certainly to our ancestors it was a day for fun, frolics and festivities. Many traditional May Day activities have however withstood the ravages of time and are still celebrated today in the UK even though they may be viewed as rather quaint by foreign visitors.
Dancing around the May Pole the origins of which are buried in symbolic fertility at a time of year romance between young people figured highly. A young girl is usually crowned the May Queen at such events with a floral headdress.
English folk dancing performed by Morris dancers or Morris Men splendidly bedecked in floral hats and jangling bells.
Padstow in Cornwall has its own unique day long festival featuring the Obby Horse pronounced locally as the “Obby Oss” draped like a skirt from the shoulders of a local resident.. The town is ablaze with colour from early Spring plants and flowers as celebrations carry-on throughout the day. The origins of these activities have long been lost in antiquity but it is speculated that they may be pre-Christian.
Internationally the 1st May is considered “The Workers Day” frequently accompanied by parades, gatherings and speeches. The day was also used by some governments to profess their military prowess. Each year during the period term the Cold War the former USSR preceded the workers celebrations with militaristic parades of troops and weapons of mass destruction. Such parades used to be used as something of a political thermometer to gauge the current state of tension between the worlds super-powers.
As for myself, I view May Day as something of a precursor hopefully pointing the way to long pleasant days of summer warmth and outdoor activities.
Filed under: May, May, May, Somerset Journal | Tagged: May Day, May Queen, Maypole, Morris Dancers, Mother Nature, Obby Oss, Padstow, Workers Day | Leave a comment »