Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-02
May-day.

the faded leaves OF history and trace
the origin of the many festivals and
holidays which We now observe. As
we pore over the musty volumes that
record the doings of the worlds
childhood, we, in effect, cause the
lives of prominent characters to be
lived over again and the thrilling
scenes of those early days to be re-
enacted for our own qualification.
Even the name of the month of MAY
is shrouded in mystery. Hither and
thither, however, underlined glints APP
pear through the thick darkness that
wells the past, affording some adj
missible grounds for conjecture. It
is supposed by some to be derived
from Maia, the mother of Mer-
curry, and while it is the fifth month
in the Gregorian calendar, it was the
third among the Romans, reckoning
from March, or dries, and thus caus-
ing May to correspond with Gemini.
In NEUROLOGICAL ages, this month
Yves sacred to Apollo. and, in fact.
upon almost every one of its days
some festival was held. Much as
this month is freighted with romance
and poetry with US, the ancients re-
garded it as not an suspicious time
in which to celebrate the nuptials of
lovers. Indeed, the ninth, eleventh
and thirteenth days were religiously
observed in memory of the dead,
and this circumstance may explain
in some measure, why the month
was divorced from the celebration of
marriage rites. The specially Of q
"Msy-dsy" would seem to be de-
rived from q festival called by the
Romans Floralia, festival held in
honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
usually commencing on the 28th Of
April and continuing through the.
first and second Of May. The priests
of the ancient Britons, who per-
formed most of their incantations in
the open fields and groves. were
wont to light great fires upon the
hilltops on the eve of May, thus ex-
pressing rude gladness at the ap-
proach of the season for beginning
the husbandman's labors. The OBJ
servance of the first day of May, as
festival, has ever been confined to
the middle northern ATTITUDES of Eu-
rope. The Amphicii never celebrate
it. Going back to the days in which
Spenser and Chaucer fourished,
we find in English poetical litera-
ture, frequent references to May-day
festivals and rustic merry-makings.
In the Knights Tale," the follow
ing quaint couplet reveals the fact
that royalty and nobility were not
unappreciative lovers of these an
nual reunions:
Fourth goeth al the court, both moste and leste,
To feche the oures freshe, and braunch and blome.
In confirmation of this, Hall in
forms us that Henry VIII. used to
"a-Maying ride" with Queen Gather
inc and many lords and ladies, to
what was then called Shooters Hill.
So universally were these festivities
in vogue, that business was virtually
suspended in many portions of Lon
don and almost wholly so in the sur
rounding villages, while the citizens
of all classes abandoned themselves
to the gayeties of May-poles, arches,
shows, various contests, bufoon-
dancing, etc. At very early date,
it was the custom, in oil parts of
England, to adorn houses, gates, and
churches, by loading them with the
rarest spring flowers and evergreens.
John Milton, although cut off by
blindness from the charms of nature,
showed his innate love for beautiful
things by writing o song on May
morning.
Shakespeare and Herrick, perhaps,
make more frequent reference to this
day than other writer's. The names
of Robin Hood and Maid Marian are
intimately associated with numerous
May-day games and traditions COM
mon among the peasantry of Eng
land. Tennyson's "Queen O. the
May" is indelibly impressed upon the
minds of millions of happy school
children on both sides of the Allan
tic. But enough has been said to
show that the day comes honestly