May Day Traditions

By Rachel Jenkins
   The first day of May is designated on some calendars as May Day; however, to my knowledge no local events are planned in observance this year. 
   The school I attended in Whiteland, Indiana, had a May Day program in the late 1940's.  I don’t remember any particulars except for the Maypole dance, although I’m sure there was more to the program, possibly music and readings.  All students gathered in the gym for the program.  The older girls, attired in pretty dresses, held the ends of long streamers of different colors, the other end of which was attached to the top of a pole placed in the middle of the gym floor.  The girls moved in opposite  directions, weaving the streamers into a pretty pattern down the pole.
   The other tradition I remember was May Day baskets.  I learned this from my mother, who was great at finding crafts to keep her five children busy.  We made baskets out of a single sheet of colored construction paper.  The tradition is to fill the basket with flowers, wild or cultivated, picked from the yard.  The baskets are then secretly hung on the doorknobs of neighbors and other friends.  The goal is to ring the doorbell or knock on the door and run away, hoping not to be discovered.  I continued this tradition with my daughters