Mayday! May Day!

May 1, or May Day, is an ancient spring festival in the northern hemisphere, and is usually a public holiday. It is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations. 

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice was Midsummer.

As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint's Day. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning.

May blossom, the flower of the May tree May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and, in this form, may be best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole dance and crowning of the Queen of the May.

Did you know...?
Mayday, as an emergency procedure word, is used internationally as a distress signal in radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning 'come help me'.

"All I want for Christmas is my Daddy to come home."

5 year-old little boy, Jordan Thwing, only wanted one thing from Santa last year; he asked if his daddy could come home for Christmas.

And Santa gave him his wish, delivering the best Christmas present in the world two days early.

Happy Feast Day, Saint John of Egypt

This particular Saint John was one of the hermits of the Nitrean desert, having formerly been a carpenter (like someone else we know with connections to this blog).

According to hagiographer Alban Butler, John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. After performing such acts he would withdraw to the top of a cliff, where he could avoid all human contact (keeping clear of women, in particular).

Saint Augustine wrote that John was tempted by devils and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman, according to Augustine, of blindness but then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person. He possessed the spiritual gift of prophecy and spoke through a window to people twice a week, often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. He predicted future victories to the Emperor Theodosius the Great.

He apparently spent the last three days of his life without food or drink or any interactions but prayer. He was discovered in his cell, with his body in a position of prayer in AD 394. His feast day in the West is, of course, March 27.

So Happy Feast Day, John of Egypt, Saint of Pointless Things**.

* A writer of biographies of saints or other venerated persons.

** Like nipples on men, free catalogues in magazines, and Posh Spice.

The Largest Snowflake Ever Observed

The largest snowflake ever observed supposedly appeared on 28 January, 125 years ago, in Fort Keogh, Montana. It was reportedly 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. However, this record seems to be based on the word of a ranch owner named Matt Coleman, who described the snowflake as “larger than milk pans” to the Monthly Weather Review journal.

This record seems a bit dubious, however, as the National Snow & Ice Data Center notes in its FAQ section regarding how big snowflakes can get:

“Snowflakes are agglomerates of many snow crystals. Most snowflakes are less than one-half inch across. Under certain conditions, usually requiring near-freezing temperatures, light winds, and unstable, convective atmospheric conditions, much larger and irregular flakes close to two inches across in the longest dimension can form. No routine measure of snowflake dimensions are taken, so the exact answer is not known.”

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is traditionally the time to take down your Christmas tree and any other festive decorations. To leave evergreens up in the house after this point is to bring bad luck on the household!

Here are some other Twelfth Night traditions that you might - or might not - be familiar with.

1) Twelfth Night is also known as Epiphany, the date on which the Christian Church celebrates the visit of the Magi to the Christ child.

2) The feast of the Epiphany originated in the East during the third century, in honour of Christ’s baptism.

3) During a special service held at St James’s Palace, London, on 6 January, members of the Royal Household present the Chapel Royal with the three gifts brought to the Christ child by the Magi.

4) At one time, the highlight of the Twelfth Night celebrations was the cutting of the twelfth-cake, which was supposed to have a dried pea or bean hidden somewhere inside it. Whoever found the bean was proclaimed king or queen for the rest of the evening’s fun and frivolity.

5) Another tradition involving a cake, upheld by the cast of the play currently being performed at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, is the eating of the Baddeley Cake. This is as a result of a stipulation made in the last will and testament of one Robert Baddeley, an actor from the eighteenth century, after whom the cake is named.

6) In the West of England Twelfth Night is the time when wassailing ceremonies are carried out.

7) At one time in England, Twelfth Night was known as being a good occasion on which to carry out various good luck rituals, as well as for its religious processions which almost went hand-in-hand with the spirited, and good humoured, revels.

8) One such ritual had farmers lighting bonfires to drive evil spirits away from their farms and fields, the tipsy agriculturalists cheering as they circled the fires to hasten the hobgoblins on their way.

9) There was also the time-honoured guessing game, whereby the (now probably inebriated) farmer had to guess what was being roasted in the kitchen before being permitted to re-enter his own home. This was not as easy as it might sound because his good wife might have something as ridiculously inedible as a shoe turning on the spit.

11) On 6 January you would also find Morris men dancing in the streets, along with fools and hobby-horses.

12) Practical jokes were the name of the game on Twelfth Night and the playing of games – particularly games of chance – with everyone determined to make the most of the last day of the holiday season.

So if you're planning to see Christmas out with a bang...

Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too,
And God bless you, and send you
A happy New Year,
And God send you
A happy New Year.

And it's goodbye from me until next Christmas. Remember, if you have any questions about the festive season whatsoever, you can contact me via this blog or here.

Happy New Year - 2012!

Made any New Year's resolutions this year? I have, twelve to be precise, and you can find out what they are here.

The A to Z of Christmas

In case you missed it, here's a summary of this year's A to Z of Christmas...