It's May!

Mary Randall

Good Morning! It's May Day! Here we are - rejoicing in a bright Spring day and coming together to share our exhilaration that the dark, cold, rainy winter has again passed and the cheerful, flowery, sunny days have once again returned! We give thanks to life as we celebrate with floral abundance, with bright garments, with fresh garden delights and spirited music! We banish the dark past in a metaphorical if not physical bonfire.

And from time immemorial, it was always this way.

Today, because I am an historian, I will talk about the ancient and medieval origins and celebrations of May Day. And because I want to keep your attention, I will talk about more recent, exuberant May events.

Let's begin with the Greeks, always a good place to start. The month of May is named for Maia, the Greek goddess of Spring and growth. Dominating May are the zodiacal signs of Taurus and Gemini, representing the contrasting solid earth and ethereal air.

More recently, some of the noteworthy birthdays which occur on this day include:
The birthdays of Kate Smith, Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins - and Mother Jones.
The Buddha's enlightenment is celebrated on the full moon in May; this year on the 17th.

Historically, this is the anniversary of the day:

• in 1892, when the US quarantine station opened on Angel Island;
• in 1951, when Mickey Mantle hit his first home run;
• in 1956, when the Salk vaccine was made available to the public;
• in 1967, when Elvis Presley got married;
• in 2003, when George Bush declared major military operations in Iraq were over

Although celebrated on various days around the world, Children's Day is celebrated in the US and Mexico on April 30, in Japan and South Korea on May 5, and in Spain on the second Sunday of May. And let's not forget Mother's Day! More solemnly, Memorial Day, was established on May 30 to honor our Civil War dead.

By May, the crops in Mexico are well-established, and those desperate enough to risk it, cross the blazing-hot deserts to migrate to El Norte.

The first week of May is a time of community-wide celebration in Mexico. May 3 is the Christian feast of the Holy Cross; it is celebrated throughout Mexico as a syncretic religious holiday, combining Catholic religious observance and many, varied pre-Columbian Springtime rituals. Essential to these happy days are lots of parties with spirited processions, gay music, new clothes, and much food and drink. It is interesting to observe that the sun reaches its zenith in southern Mexico the first week of May; did this phenomenon figure into the aboriginal planning of the first communities and their May festivities?

But let's go farther back into history.

The history of May Day in Europe is an ancient one, reaching back into the pre-Christian era and reflecting the universal and immortal human fears of the dark, lean times and the bountiful celebrations designed to counteract those fears and give thanks for the burgeoning greenery and light.

Celebrations appeared early in pre-Christian times with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers; Gaelic Beltane; and the Germanic Walpurgis Night.

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane, meaning "Lucky Fire." In medieval Ireland it was the beginning of the summer season, with great bonfires marking a time of purification and transition, with ritual acts to protect people from the harmful effects of other-worldly spirits. Note that there is a six-month span between November 1 and May 1; it was believed that the other-worldly spirits were close at hand on those two days.

May was the traditional month of wearing green, in honor of the Earth Mother's new garment. It was also the month of coupling in plowed fields to encourage the crops. May was a "honey moon" of sexual freedom throughout rural Europe up to the 16th Century. Marriage bonds were temporarily in abeyance. The maxim that only bad women marry in the month of May probably was a relic of earlier taboos on all marriages during the month of license ... .

Naturally, the church opposed this festival as early as the 7th Century.

In medieval times, February 1 was the first day of Spring, and May 1 was the first day of summer, making June 21, "Midsummer Day." Shakespeare turned it into the zany and delightful, "Midsummer Night's Dream."

Walpurgis continues to be celebrated in several northern European countries with bonfires and dancing. The celebratory day was named for St. Walpurga, who was made a saint on May 1, 870. May 1 is also the feast day of St. James The Lesser and St. Philip, who are patron saints of workers. Medieval English farm laborers were given a day off on this day.

There is a German tradition in 15th and 16th Century literature of May 1 being the day of meeting of sorcerers and witches. May 1 is the Great Sabbat, or Walpurgis Night. Church bells in 17th Century rural Germany were rung all night throughout the month of May to protect the citizens from flying witches.

English King Henry VIII loved celebrations, especially May Day.

One such occasion is described by the biographer Alison Weir in her book, Henry VIII:

On May Day, 1515, there took place one of the most celebrated pageants of the reign. The King, lords and noblemen escorted the Queen accompanied by 25 richly dressed damsels into the country. The King was dressed "entirely in green velvet, cap, doublet, hose shoes ..." and surrounded by 200 archers of the guard and 100 noblemen on horseback. Henry then led the Queen to the sound of trumpets, through the wood to carefully constructed bowers ... decorated with flowers, herbs and boughs and filled with singing birds ... Within these bowers, was served a proper good breakfast."

Later that morning the company proceeded homewards accompanied by ... singing girls dressed as Lady May and Dame Flora, "surrounded by His Majesty's guard and musicians sounding the whole way on trumpets, drums and other instruments, ... and the King brought up the rear ... followed by the Queen with a crowd on foot [exceeding] 25,000 persons."

Henry and the court knew how to have a good time!

Within the Roman Catholic Church, May is the month dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with the singing of many devotional hymns and plentiful Spring flowers lovingly placed around the church.

May Day is International Workers Day. It was established in 1889 by the Second International in commemoration of the May 4, 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago. (The Second International was an organization of socialist and labor parties.) Since then, May 1 has been named a national holiday to honor labor in more than eighty countries. Here in the US, the day and its marches have also been joined over the decades by workers demanding gender and civil rights and legal immigrant status...

Incidentally, the Second International also established March 8 as International Women's Day.

May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. It is noted that the US Congress designated May 1 as Loyalty Day in 1958, due to the day's perceived appropriation by the Soviet Union.

It is a regrettable sign of a national change, that less than 7% of the American labor force is unionized today. Public sector unions, representing about one-third of public employees, face an extreme threat from the Republican Party, and as they go, so will the rest of the US labor movement.

To quote Newsweek's Ezra Klein in the March 7 issue:

A world without organized labor is a world where workers have less voice and corporations are even more dominant and unchecked across both the economy and the political system. That isn't healthy - not for workers and, in the long run, not even for corporations. But to change it, labor has to do more than cheat death. It has to find a new lease on life nationally.

Speaking of fabulous Spring festivities, I must include the annual UU dinner auction, scheduled for next Saturday. May I add that the San Francisco street fests celebrating Cinco de Mayo, Carnaval, and the Bay to Breakers in May, and the Gay Pride parade in June, are especially fun-filled, joyous events.

As May begins, my thoughts turn to Cinco de Mayo. No, not the alcohol- soaked, guacamole-eating orgies contrived by beer companies in Los Angeles. Rather, the 5th of May, 1862. Mexico was deeply in debt to the European powers, and the French came calling to collect. They invaded the Gulf port of Vera Cruz in January of that year, and by May had fought their way to the high plateau colonial city of Puebla. The ragtag Mexican troops led by Generals Zaragoza and Diaz, fought valiantly against 7,000 well-equipped, highly trained French infantry and artillery.

And on May 5, the Mexicans won the battle.

Napoleon sent 25,000 more troops, the President of Mexico fled north, and ultimately the war was won by the Europeans. As historian Earl Shorris wrote so admiringly in his book, The Life And Times of Mexico,

But the Mexicans had not forgotten the Fifth of May at Puebla; something had happened to the spirit of the Mexican Army there; they did not surrender easily, even though they were pressed into tiny corners of the country ... the Mexican soldier, sometimes dispirited after many defeats, did not desert. The victory at Puebla, although followed quickly by defeat, had created a sense of autonomy far greater than the [War for Independence] ... The idea of independent Mexico became reality at Puebla; they had held against the French Army. A powerful aspect of the Mexican character would manifest itself after Puebla: The Mexicans would suffer, they would die, but somehow or other, they would hold their ground.

The Mexican experience is a lesson for all of us. Sometimes in life it feels as if we win only minor battles and lose the war. But the rich character developed by the little victories, and even more by some defeats, can lead us on to a contented lifetime. We must give thanks for our victories while remembering our defeats in their proper perspective. And maybe in a hundred years we will celebrate with beer and guacamole.

And so, in closing, I exhort you - Burn the metaphorical bonfires! Lavish yourself in fresh flowers and bright clothing! Sing to your heart's content! Be thankful! And have the time of your life!

It's May!

[Delivered May 1, 2011. Mary Randall is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County.]

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