The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-06-08

How the Festival Was Celebrated b.
Grown People In England.

How the Festival Was Celebrated BY
Grown People In England.
Once during the foggy, dark weather
did old London, usually dirty and Ill smell
Ing, blossom like rose. To the forest,
with all Its fresh leaves unfolding and its
sweet airs blowing, went the young work
ingmen and women of the city-for It was
not tho children's May day yet, but fes-
tival for older people-to gather spring
flowers
How glad they were to get abroad "in
the open" in those old days Of Queen
Elizabeth and King James! They went
to the great forests near by, .Hainault for
est. Epping forest and that great body Of
woods through which Waiting street ran
You know, Waiting street even traversed
the Sherwood forest Of Robin Hood and
his merry men-and they brought homo
the wild rose and "the white May" for SO
they called the blossoining hawthorn, and
many bouquet and branch Of goodly
green or delicate spring buds and flowers.
There were two or three principal streets
that they decked, singing all tho while,
until these looked like fresh bowers, and
they made arches of greenery and bios.
SONS over doors and gatcways on May eve,
and hung little oolored lamps among them
until the children must have thought the
scene like fairyland. TO the knobs OF the
doors they also hung punches and baskets
of flowers, and friends and lovers brought
each other "a branch of May" Nc sweet
or greeting could there be, surely, after
the long, cold, dark months Of fog and
winter within doors.
Then, the next day, what dances around
the tall May pole, with It's futtering rib
bons; what revels with plenteous tables
full Of meats and drinks; what fair pag-
eants, with music and speech and the al
legorical characters that the English used
SO to delight in
But in the course Of time the Puritan
temper became dominant In England, and
the old sports and revels were fiercely put
away. Grown men and women ceased
their mumming and masking as unworthy
of grave minds, and even this sweet May
festival only survived In the new world
across the seas as the sport and pageant OF
children.
Strangely enough, New England kept
ono part Of Its celebration and the south
another. In New England, on the eve be-
fore the 1st Of May, the merry children
hang their May baskets at the doors and
| hide near by to see them taken IN, while
In Virginia and the southern states they
celebrate the morning Of May day by
what is really an Elizabcthan pageant
the browning of the queon Of May. Some
little girl is elected queen and is crowned
| by another child as bishop. There In q
| PROCESSION OF children, some Of them rep
rescpting the scepter bearer, the ladies o.
honor and spring herself, oil barring now
era and rociting poeticai speeches In char
acter. :.
Il was Just in this way that tho disni
| flcd lord mayor and other high officiAl
uscd to entertain Queen Elizabeth herscl
| when she w.nt TO visit the various town
in her Kingdom, and she sometimes go
very weary OF the long speeches or poems
| but all tho people enjoyed the mcrrymak
| inc and masking or playing In chsractc
immensely, as much as tho children d
now.-Elis r.. Mostly In Philadelphi