For many people, May Day conjures memories of filling little May baskets with dandelions and carting them home to doting parents. But what is May Day?
“May Day is a celebration of spring and the goddess Maia for whom the month was named,” explains William Ingram, University of Michigan professor of English.
In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the celebration meant going into the woods and picking flowers, especially the so-called mayflowers, or Hawthorn. Villages would set up May Poles to dance around. Later, rampant unacknowledged sexual activity around the day caused Puritans to strongly protest the celebration.
In the 20th century May Day became a Communist Party holiday. However, the current May Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow celebrates something quite different, the victory of Bolshevism.
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William Ingram