Saturday, May 1, 2010

Happy May Day!

From Wikipedia:

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.

May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States, May Baskets are made. These baskets are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone's doorstep. The basket giver would ring the bell and run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the fleeing giver. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged.


This week I received a May Day Basket full of goodies from my friend Rae Lynne in Iowa.  We don't have this tradition here in Ontario, at least not in my parts of Ontario, but I thought it was great fun and love receiving her knit May Day Basket and the goodies inside.


























Penny enjoyed the package as well.  She acted as a Postal-Dog and carried it all the way home from our mailbox in her mouth (that's about 1 mile!).  It was super cute.














She was really on a mission to safely deliver this package!

More pics and my project pages for Rae Lynne's package here.

Thanks so much for sharing this great tradition with me Rae Lynne!

2 comments:

  1. Hooray for May Day! :) Great background information too!

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  2. That's so sweet of her to send the basket to you! And I love the pic of your dog bringing the package home, so cute!

    I didn't even know what May Day was. Thanks for the info, lol!

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