May
The month of May is believed to be named after Maia, the Roman goddess of growth, abundance, fertility and prosperity. That’s a lot of responsibility.
Celebrations
Celebrations in May include May Queen Days, Maypoles and worker’s/Labour Day. The Celts celebrated Beltane, the festival of spring with fire and hawthorn blossom. The Romans gave devotions of flowers and animals to the goddess Flora and partied with all-night orgies - presumably linked to Maia!
Each year across the High Peak where I live, May Queen Days are celebrated in villages and towns. The May Queen traditionally wears a white dress and a crown of flowers. The white dress symbolises purity. Usually, a young teenage girl is elected and celebrated as the village May Queen each year. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the reassuring familiarity of some traditions. I love being part of a community and the May parades are great fun. However, I really think that in this day and age it’s just not appropriate to choose a teenage girl, put her in a white dress and celebrate her virginity by parading her through the village! Do the girls realise the symbolism? For me, it’s time for a more liberated rethink.
Nesting birds are feeding and guiding their young
Birds
Nesting birds are in full swing now; parents are busy finding food, then dashing back and forth to nests. I’ve been digging and planting in our back garden and two robins just keep popping in, scooping up worms and dashing off again. It’s so lovely to see them, they’ve become my little garden friends. Did you know that by being more connected to nature, that is, spending time noticing it, you can reduce your own feelings of isolation? It could be a familiar bird that visits, or a tree you always look out for, maybe a spot where you always stop and look to see what’s changed. Nature gives so much, especially when you just give it a little bit of your time.
A carpet of bluebells!
Woods
Bluebells and wild garlic carpet the woods in May, catching the last of the sunlight before new leaves block it all out. Woodlands are magical places at any time of year but a morning wander through a bluebell wood with the accompaniment of birdsong – it’s a little piece of paradise.
Flora
May brings an abundance of fresh greens and whites. The yellows of March and April have given way to cow parsley, hawthorn, daisies and cuckoo flower. At the end of May, hedgerows froth with hawthorn blossom, I love the hedges still lining the fields below Mam Tor in the Edale Valley. Blossom smothers hillsides, like the slopes of Bunster, near Dovedale and Ilam. Cow parsley lines the lanes and fills some of the road verges and roundabouts where councils have given it space to flourish- more of this please, councils! Let your roundabouts and verges grow wild.
Hawthorn blossom
Over the last few months, knowing that noticing nature will help me through the day has really made a difference. Of course, it doesn’t take grief away but it’s one of the things I do to help myself and look after my wellbeing. A Roman goddess guardian angel and a tree with protective powers feel like a good thing too. It’s reassuring to know Juno and the elder trees are there as a back-up.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn is a really interesting tree with all sorts of properties and stories. A symbol of fertility itself, it’s also known as the May Tree, named after the month in which it flowers. Hawthorn trees were also used to create the original maypoles – a tree rather than a pole.
In medieval times hawthorn blossom was used to make spring garlands but was banned from the home because it smelled like the Great Plague. It’s since been discovered that the flowers contain the chemical Trimethylamine – one of the first chemicals found in decaying animal tissue. Have a sniff and see what you think!
Hawthorn is known to provide health benefits; it can reduce high blood pressure and boost heart health. It’s also thought to bring a sense of calm and stability when people feel grief-stricken or anxious. It heals the heart both physically and emotionally. This month I’m going to find my nearest hawthorn tree and spend a bit of time pondering on that one.
'Mayday!'
On a lighter, and final note, May Day is also used as a distress call: ‘Mayday! Mayday!’ I was pleased and proud to discover that this was invented by the officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in the 1920s. Most air traffic was between Croydon and France, so he suggested ‘mayday’, as a distress call which both the French and the English would recognise, as it sounds like ‘m’aidez’ in French, meaning ‘help me’. The historical link to Croydon manifested itself in Mayday Road, where Mayday Hospital was built and where I was born! Sadly, the hospital has now changed its name to Croydon University Hospital, which is far less interesting. Ah well, here’s to Frederick Stanley Mockford. Cheers!
Fresh out of Mayday Hospital. September 1963
1 comment
Clare Lardner
May 2, 2021 at 3:04 pm
Oh you little cutie! Love the story about Mayday/m’aidez. I didn’t know that. Also agree it’s time for a change on the virginal term May Queen! Very well-written and interesting blog as always xx