The Parenting Passageway

May Day – May Day is coming up!  This lovely festival marks what is considered the first day of Summer in Celtic lands, and also is connected to the Roman Flora, the goddess of Spring.  Today, the May Queen represents Flora. 

There are places where unmarried girls rise early on May Day and wash their faces in the dew.  This ensures a beautiful complexion for the rest of the year.  Some people believe if a young girl washes her face in the morning dew she will marry the first man she meets!

A May Pole is another wonderful tradition.  Typically there is a large May Pole with flowers on the top and ribbons hanging from it to weave in and out with skipping kinds of dances.  There is a lovely song that goes, “Here’s a branch of snowy may/ A branch the fairies gave to me/Who would like to dance today/With the branch the fairies gave me?/Dance away, dance away/Holding high the branch of may/Dance away, dance away? Holding high the branch of May.”  There are several different tunes to this, “All Year Round” has it set to the tune of “Here we go round the Mulberry bush”. 

Traditionally, on May Day, one wears flowers either in a “May Crown” for girls while dancing around the May Pole, or at least a flower in a button hole!  Another thing to wear includes a ribbon with bells sewn on it for jingling and dancing!

One fun tradition to start in your own family is that of making May Day baskets and leaving them on the door of your neighbors in secret!  Especially try to include the elderly and the lonely. 

Some families also have bonfires to mark the beginning of Summer.

Other traditions point out that the fairies move from their winter residences to their summer places on this day, and we can honor the fairies by leaving a gift of food or drink out for the fairies. A lucky child born on May Day would be able to see fairies, as tradition goes!

For the adults, the tradition of May Day is “no spending, no lending, no borrowing,” according to the book, “Celebrating Irish Festivals.”  See if you can try that for the day!

For your Nature Table, you could consider replacing the symbols of Easter with pink and blue veils and pink and blue paper flowers.

Ascension- Marked as the 40th day after Easter in which Christ was taken up into the Heavens.  This would be a lovely day to go hiking and to spend some time in nature just daydreaming and enjoying all the beauty. 

Other popular things for Ascension include games involving the Air Element, such as games with a parachute, making streamers on sticks, making windmills.

The Nature Table for Ascension is typically a gathering of wild flowers with butterflies hanging above the table.

Whitsun – this is the day of Pentecost, the day of the birth of the Church where the Holy Spirit came down to the Apostles and suddenly the Apostles could speak so all who heard them could understand them (even though everyone spoke different languages!)    Pentecost also marks the Jewish agricultural festival that took place on the 50th day after Passover.  This  day is often symbolized by a white dove.  I do think one could celebrate this festival as a Day of Peace within your own family if you  have no particular spiritual tradition surrounding this day.

Music – My two favorite songs for Whistun are on page 49 of the book “Festivals, Family and Food.”  There are also some wonderful stories for Whitsun in the Summer Wynstones book. 

Crafts- Typical crafts for Whitsun include the making of a Whitsun dove or a mobile of doves.   You could fly the doves above your Nature Table which would be adorned with a white cloth and perhaps a vase of white flowers.  The book “All Year Round” states, “The circle of individual white petals, joined in one as they are by a sun-gold space which bears the future seed, tells the Whitsun story in one picture!” 

Food – This is a lovely day to wear white and have some kind of a white food with dinner.  Some families also use a white tablecloth and set up 12 candles to represent the 12 apostles.

A more adult interpretation of this festival comes to us from the book, “All Year Round,” in this way:  “The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Spirit of Truth.  In celebrating Pentecost we celebrate the insight that the singularity of the individual is sacred, that a spark of divine fire shines from each one of us, and that the accord between individuals rests on the ability truly to understand one another.  To communicate in a spirit of truth is often a difficult challenge in today’s world.  If this challenge can be met, even in modest ways, then the vision of the dove descending – the symbol of the Holy Spirit and the symbol of peace – becomes a reality for individuals, for groups, for nations.”

A lovely thought for this holiday, don’t you think?

Hope this gives you some wonderful ideas for celebrating with your own family,

Carrie