Making May Day Baskets

I am writing this on May Day. Do you remember making May Day baskets out of construction paper and working on the project for a couple of days before May 1? I think that we might have gotten to make some of these baskets as our art project in school, and of course Mom was always a good resource. I think that they were supposed to be filled with flowers and given to someone, but if my memory serves me correctly, some baskets may have been filled with treats to be hung on the door knob, or left on the door step of a person you loved. Some place along the line, I think you were supposed to ring the door bell after you placed the basket and then run to see if the person could catch you and give you a kiss. I remember the running part, but not much on the kissing part. Of course with today’s security cameras, it wouldn’t be near as much fun. Then there was the May pole. I know that some country schools did the May pole thing. Did they use the flag pole for their pole, and did the kids get to hang the ribbon streamers or did the teacher get to be the lucky person?

I did take a quick break here to Google May Day. May Day pole dances and celebrations started many years ago as a celebration of Spring, and a good luck event for the planting of spring crops. Sorry to say that the event went on to become a time of protests of whatever was in season, and is now mostly forgotten. And back to the kissing part - actually the original theme was to run because it was considered bad luck to be caught by the recipient. I hope that you all had a Good May Day, even if we did have wind and cloudy skies and probably no baskets.