Millions of people around the world were today coming together to
celebrate May Day - a holiday which signifies different things indifferent countries.
- Traditional May Day celebrations were pre-Christian agriculturalfestivals, but this connection eventually lost its significance andMay Day survived as merely a day for popular festivities.
- In many countries, May 1st is supposed to be the day to celebratehappiness, joy and the coming of summer.
- The first festivals began in Italy where the ancient Romanshonoured Flora, the goddess of flowers.
- They eventually spread across Europe and had reached a peak inEngland during the Middle Ages where villagers would awake atdaybreak to roam the countryside gathering blossoming flowers andbranches.
- A towering maypole decorated with bright field flowers was setup on the village green and villagers danced and sang around themaypole accompanied by a piper.
- Morris dancers would perform their routines wearing bells oncolourful costumes and the fairest maiden of the village was chosenas the May Queen.
- Maypoles were usually set up for the day in small towns, but inLondon and the larger towns they were erected permanently.
- In France, where they consider the month of May as sacred to theVirgin Mary, young girls are enshrined as May queens in churchesbefore leading processions in honour of the Virgin.
- A Greek tradition is for children to go out in the morning tosearch for the first swallow of spring and, once the bird is located,to go door to door singing songs in return for treats to eat.
- May 1st is also a holiday in many socialist and Communistcountries. That tradition dates from 1890 when socialists across theworld demonstrated on May 1st for the introduction of an eight-hourworking day.
PA