Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON may be the melting pot of the nations but there is one day in the year at least when she offers striking evidence that she la the daughter ot old england and that the descendants of the founders ot the nation despite the infiltration of other racial strains during the centuries in which the nation was building are etall conscious of their english an bestry that day la the first of may to bome people who live in america but who have not yet been trans formed into americans by the alchemy of the melting pot slay 1 means a day tor protest against the prevailing order of things for bo called radical activities or calling for an uprising which somehow neter beems to come on successfully for millions of americans may 1 means disorder of another kind the aemi annual upheaval in domestic arrangements range ments and change from old fire sides to new known as moving day but to millions of young americans in our schools and colleges may 1 Is a festival day a time of rejoicing and merrymaking of bong and ot dance and as they gaily dressed weave in and out with the long streamers attached to the top of a maypole erected on some level stretch of greensward they are perpetuating an old custom of bringing in the may which traces back in an unbroken line to the elizabethan days in merrie england in that respect may day Is almost unique few if any of the holidays which we celebrate are observed in a manner BO closely resembling its ancient observance as Is this one it Is one of the popular customs of the long ago which persists after others have long since passed away the month of may Is named for mala the roman goddess of fertility maia was the personification of spring and ats thought to have every blos wild flower and shrub under her special care and protection the klomans engaged in elaborate floral games during the first week of may so the may day celebration of a later period had its roots in the rites orie anally offered in honor of the god dess mata but it was another ro dan festival which brought to may day the character of the cere made it distinctive this was the floralla held in honor of flora the goddess of flowers when there were gay costumes dramatic necea and dances when christianity began to prevail over europe certain pagan customs were retained in a modified form and these was the may day celebration in medieval times it became an important festival and all classes of people old and young participated in it among the russians there wa a spring festival celebrated by the boys and girls with a choral dance called and in sweden there waa also a may day celebration with a dance but for some reason the festival reached its highest development in england and we now think of it as a distinctively english custom early in the first morning of may the men and the maids of old england would set forth for the fields and the woods to gather flowering boughs wayside blossoms and any pretty fresh green things that might await them these treasures were used to may the doors of the popular bouses in the village it Is this custom which survives in the hanging of may baskets by the children of today however the maccre Ma went into the woods primarily to choose the tallest straightest hawthorne to cut it down and with its greenness still freshly fragrant to bring it into the public square there to ralso it for the center of their long day s festivity they did it with much ceremony A writer in the fifteenth century bays they bring home with great veneration they have or bortle boake of oxen every one having a sweet nos cgale of flowers tied to the tip of his horns and those draw home the may poale coy erad all over with flowers and and thus equipped it sy v A 44 mn h yf 3 ai amsy was acard with handkerchiefs and flagged streaming on the top the maypole having been ral ed what follows Is resented by a puritan writer thus and then fell they to banquet and feast to leape and dance about it as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idols whereof this Is a perfect pattern or rather the thing itself the beloved festival called by alie puritans an impious and pagan superstition was long celebrated by the rich and poor alave chaucer writes bourth goth al the court both most and lest to fatch the flowers fresh and blome butov in his survey of london ears in the month of may cery man except impediment would walk into the meadows and greene woods there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers As already indicated these maypole affairs were obnoxious to tha puritans to them the revelers were only heathers heathens he athens so the may day observances ser vances were forbidden by parliament in 1614 16 14 but same into favor once more at A maypole once set up might remain for many years and annually be made the focus of popular amusements the cities joined in the celebration just as eagerly as the country folk stow ta his history of london mentions several maypoles May poles one of which at what Is now st mary le strand a crowded thorough fare in his day it was feet high the last maypole erected in london was of cedar il feet high it was beet up by 12 british bailers bailors under the personal supervision of james n then duke of lork and lord high admiral near the site of the present church of st marys in the strand half a cen tury later it was removed to an stead park in essex eliere it was used by sir isaac newton as part of the support of a large telescope which had been presented the royal society by a froncki astronomer another celebrated maypole waa that from which st andrews under shaft in Leaden hall street in london Is supposed to have taken ita name stow says that it was due to a high or long shaft or maypole higher than the steeple hence under shaft which used early in the morning of may day the greatest spring festival of merry england to be set up and set with flowers opposite the south door of st andrews it was in the elizabethan days however that the may day celebration reached its highest development what had previously been a simple spontaneous celebration became one of much pomp and pageantry if you read sir walter scott s kenilworth you will learn what a colorful spectacle it was enter six young men in leather jerkins follow on six young maids leading a sleek cow adorned with flowers how struts robin hood in lincoln green accompanied by little john will scarlet and the others of that famous outlaw band writes ono historian of this festival after these walk demurely the pretty brida maid ens escorting maid marian the queen of the maj follow other attending girls comes a rumbling creaking sound the oxen pull the great may pole to its place of honor and after the may come a medley of person ages the hobby horses the dancers the jesters and the crowd A hi the pole Is raised lvery one shouts the goodmen woodmen and the dance around it the bagpipes play for their steps the jesters and the hobby horse are busy with buffoonery rl bald tuck attracts attention now Is a contest with the low bow a prize of laurel and ribbons Is given to the winner a crown of ivy to the second finally the morris or morrice era come up to pel form these are an energetic talented crew A puritan writer says of them they have their hobby horses their dragons and other antiques together with their handle and thundering drum mers then march tills heathen corn pany their piping their a dancing their bells ingling their handkerchiefs fluttering about their heads like badde men morris dancing Is a different thing from the ordinary folk dancing done by all at the may day fetes those who did the morris dances were especially trained for it and were known as the morris men each hlll sa of any pretension bad its own troupe the old men took pride in teaching the youngsters the steps between laster and whitsuntide each year then on whit monday all went out about the countryside dancing and got many a piece of silver for their antics their fiddler played early in the morning to entice cm to dance and off they were with green garters around he pole the men usually had their own fool sometimes too they had in their troupe that old time burlesque figure the man woman who by the fantasy of his costume and the indecency of his conduct was a constant delight to the broad minded elizabethan audience once the men have done their turns the people whose fete this rightly Is may dance to their hearts content men and girls dance prettily together doing the same steps that their fathers and mothers did before thorn the humblest of the village folk had a share in the days merrymaking the chimney sweeps had their own quaint dance to do may day Is the sweeps holiday they appear dressed in fantastic costumes a little legend of the sweeps dance is that once a great lady lost her baby boy and some yeara later told an old sweep about her misfortune lie replied that his sweep who was at the moment up her chimney had been a foundling and when the boy came down she be a mark or on eai and gave clothes and great cheer to all the sweeps in the town on the next may day A |