May day

Mack.Hoover · Post by **Mack.Hoover** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 5:51 pm

Remember hanging may baskets on folkses door knobs?

Ok. Just use your imagination. I can't show you the picture.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 5:54 pm

I tried three times but couldn't see it.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 6:19 pm

That's right!!! It's Bealtaine! Fertility rites! Drunken orgies! Virgin sacrifices! Pagan City, here we come!

chas · Post by **chas** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 7:56 pm

And tonight is Walpurgisnacht!

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 8:35 pm

Nope, I don't remember that. I do remember when I was a kid it was a yearly ritual at school. We always had a big ole Maypole, spent weeks practicing "winding" it correctly with colored ribbons as we danced around the thing, had a "May Court" and a king and queen were crowned. It was great fun. I haven't thought about that in years, in fact I bet my kids( in their mid-twenties) wouldn't even know what I was talking about .

Ridseard · Post by **Ridseard** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 8:51 pm

chas wrote:And tonight is Walpurgisnacht!

I forgot that May Eve is Walpurgisnacht. Appropriately, we're having thunderstorms tonight. <shudder>

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:11 pm

cowtime wrote:We had a "May Court" and a king and queen were crowned.

If there's a bustle in your hedge row, don't be alarmed now.
It's just a spring clean for the May Queen.

(Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven")

french · Post by **french** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:35 pm

cowtime wrote:Nope, I don't remember that. I do remember when I was a kid it was a yearly ritual at school. We always had a big ole Maypole, spent weeks practicing "winding" it correctly with colored ribbons as we danced around the thing, had a "May Court" and a king and queen were crowned. It was great fun. I haven't thought about that in years, in fact I bet my kids( in their mid-twenties) wouldn't even know what I was talking about .

in germany they do the pole thing & something called "tanz in den mai", which means dancing into may. germans, young and old, boogie from 30 apr -> 1 may. some fertility rites also observed.

- tom

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:39 pm

Mack.Hoover wrote:Remember hanging may baskets on folkses door knobs?

I remember folks telling me they used to do this.

Nanohedron wrote:Fertility rites! Drunken orgies! Virgin sacrifices! Pagan City, here we come!

I'd rather not. Can I just have tea and cookies and read something by C.S. Lewis?

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Thu May 01, 2003 12:10 am

Tomorrow is a BIG day for us...it's the day the children's Morris Troupe I play for makes its debut! Morris Dance is, of course, strongly associated with May Day (that "dancing in the May"), as well as with other festivals, both secular and sacred. The adult teams will be up at dawn at the lighthouse in Santa Cruz to dance the sun up...then the kids will meet them downtown to dance on the street.

I'm getting a bit nervous...other than our practices, I've never played for dancers. I do OK in rehearsal, but I'm so worried I'll flub something in performance and mess things up for the kids. Funny, when it's just me playing, I don't sweat it...if I make a mistake, who's likely to know? But the kids depend so much on the music to tell them what to do when and to keep their rhythm going....

Grrr...I've just got to stop worrying! I must have played these very simple versions of Shepherd's Hey and South Australia a thousand times, I'm NOT going to flub them!

:roll:

When I was a kid, we used to make May baskets out of paper strips, fill them with flowers and hang them on people's doors on May Day. I mentioned it to the kids today, and they'd never heard the like...hmmm...that might be a good project to suggest to the teachers next year!

Redwolf

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Thu May 01, 2003 12:49 am

Nanohedron wrote:That's right!!! It's Bealtaine! Fertility rites! Drunken orgies! Virgin sacrifices! Pagan City, here we come!

Suitable viewing? How's about the cult film 'The wickerman'?
No doubt,many of you may have seen this,but for those who haven't,the gist of the story is that, a young girl is reported missing on a remote Scottish island,so a policeman(played by Edward Woodward-'Callan','The Equaliser') is despatched from the mainland to investigate.
Turns out that there's been a pagan revival on the island,led by lord Summerhill(Christopher 'Dracula' lee)
The film is a bit 70's horror campy in parts,but in essence is a good story,and the ending is still quite a shocker.
The 'folky' sound track is a bit embarrassing-in fact there's so many musical interludes you could almost class the film as a Horror-Musical!
Someone actually plays a RECORDER in the pub session scene (now that's REAL HORROR!

)

Cori · Post by **Cori** » Thu May 01, 2003 4:49 am

Redwolf wrote:Tomorrow is a BIG day for us...it's the day the children's Morris Troupe I play for makes its debut!

Best of luck, Redwolf. Looking forward to hearing how it all went!

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Thu May 01, 2003 4:57 am

kevin m. wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:That's right!!! It's Bealtaine! Fertility rites! Drunken orgies! Virgin sacrifices! Pagan City, here we come!
Suitable viewing? How's about the cult film 'The wickerman'?
No doubt,many of you may have seen this,but for those who haven't,the gist of the story is that, a young girl is reported missing on a remote Scottish island,so a policeman(played by Edward Woodward-'Callan','The Equaliser') is despatched from the mainland to investigate.
Turns out that there's been a pagan revival on the island,led by lord Summerhill(Christopher 'Dracula' lee)
The film is a bit 70's horror campy in parts,but in essence is a good story,and the ending is still quite a shocker.
The 'folky' sound track is a bit embarrassing-in fact there's so many musical interludes you could almost class the film as a Horror-Musical!
Someone actually plays a RECORDER in the pub session scene (now that's REAL HORROR! )

Classic film! It has that spooky "everyone knows something awful and they're not telling me" feel running through it.

One of the best ever film endings ever! Being a 70s film there's a bit of female nudity, but they don't overdo it.

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Thu May 01, 2003 5:26 am

Best of luck Redwolf. If you keep training up youngsters then maybe one day I can finally hang up my bells (or at least malinger with the rest of the musicians). I shall expect a full report when I get back from my own weekend of celebrations.

rbm · Post by **rbm** » Thu May 01, 2003 5:50 am

As a child (about 30 years ago) I lived in Bedfordshire and every year we would be dancing around the may pole and there would be a king and queen of may as well.

When I moved up to the wild heathen north this didn't happen, so is this an English celebration?

Richard.

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