Memories from of Mayday.
In the village where I live May Day celebrations were big and bold and colourful.
A maypole used to be put up on the green. A nervous looking chap on a wobbly ladder would put a garland on the top and attached the coloured ribbons. I remember us kids at infants school practicing dancing so that on May Day would stand around the maypole with the bottom of the ribbon tucked in waist bands so that when we danced in and out of each other we made the right pattern as proud parents and community members watched.
Schools, local businesses and institutions would make garlands, and young girls would parade them down the street to the sound of a brass band so that a winner could be judged by the crowd.
There were professional dancers dressed up in costumes like the Jack in the Green and the hobby horse, but mostly I remember the bunting, food and drink, the smell of bonfires and meat roasting. And as I child I saw adults dropping everything just to have fun.
Sadly this is a thing of the past. My experiences were some of the last. Economic changes in the 70s and 80s reduced the community size and made it poorer, and modern generations are too obsessed with online interactions over community, cultural ethnic diversity seems to have accelerated apathy to local tradition, and people now over politicise any public enterprise.
A maypole used to be put up on the green. A nervous looking chap on a wobbly ladder would put a garland on the top and attached the coloured ribbons. I remember us kids at infants school practicing dancing so that on May Day would stand around the maypole with the bottom of the ribbon tucked in waist bands so that when we danced in and out of each other we made the right pattern as proud parents and community members watched.
Schools, local businesses and institutions would make garlands, and young girls would parade them down the street to the sound of a brass band so that a winner could be judged by the crowd.
There were professional dancers dressed up in costumes like the Jack in the Green and the hobby horse, but mostly I remember the bunting, food and drink, the smell of bonfires and meat roasting. And as I child I saw adults dropping everything just to have fun.
Sadly this is a thing of the past. My experiences were some of the last. Economic changes in the 70s and 80s reduced the community size and made it poorer, and modern generations are too obsessed with online interactions over community, cultural ethnic diversity seems to have accelerated apathy to local tradition, and people now over politicise any public enterprise.
