Introduction: In this article, Scott Phillips reminisces about his family’s traditions of celebrating May and the coming of spring, and researches old newspapers to find that these traditions go back a long way. Scott is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past® genealogy services.
Tra la! It’s May! The lusty month of May!
—Guinevere
Guinevere’s words are from the wonderful play and movie, Camelot. May brings the flowers that April’s showers promised us, and while the traditions of May baskets and May poles may have been more popular with our ancestors than they are with us, they still do exist.
My Memories of May
My personal memories of May Day, due to my age, tend to focus on the U.S.S.R. and the Cold War. While my sisters had visions of May poles and May baskets in their heads, I could only think of the specter of the “Red Menace” that was on display in articles such as this one from a 1950 newspaper.
May Pole Showdowns
As I continued researching May Day and its celebrations in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, the very earliest mention I could find was this 1725 article. Because of the Cold War connection in my mind between May Day and confrontation, I was not surprised that this article mentioned not only a May pole—but also an altercation. It seems that in Barford, a ”neighboring Gentleman” suspected the local May pole had been stolen from his woods, and came with a “large Posse” to get it back. However, the locals “rose upon them” and gave the posse “an entire Defeat, and sent them back with many broken Heads.”
Luckily, a bit later in Pennsylvania as reported in this 1798 newspaper article, cooler heads prevailed in a village-wide dispute over a May pole. It seems half the village wanted one and half did not. The matter was eventually taken up by the local magistrate who had this to say:
You grave folks who are against a May pole shall have none—but you gay folks who are for a May pole may set up one as soon as you like.
The result was:
The whole village were struck with the equity of their magistrate, and peace and good-will were instantly restored.
Much better than “many broken heads” I’d say!
Family Tradition of May Baskets
Fortunately, in our home May baskets reigned and did so in peace! My mother and maternal grandmother, who lived with us, would magically have a homemade May basket appear on the door knob of my sisters’ bedrooms on May Day morning.
It seems homemade May baskets were the norm for a long, long time, as shown by this 1894 newspaper article. I especially enjoyed that the first line of the article was this:
When I was a little girl there was a pretty custom in fashion among children which I do not now hear much about.
Gee, I guess some folks were worried about this lovely tradition fading out way back in 1894! I am glad the tradition did continue and, as you can read in this article, there are directions for making your own May basket that you can still use today for your celebrations.
Until our children married and moved out on their own, my wife always made sure that those handmade baskets continued to mysteriously appear each May Day—and now I do the same for her.
Do you have any special family May Day memories and do you still celebrate May Day in your home? What are your family traditions to celebrate spring?