The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-11

No doubt the pretty festival, which, at
its remote inception, was really a reli-
gious ceremony degenerated into Ii
Cense and debauchery. 1t did so in
Rome, where the feast of Flora became
a very licentious period. After the
restoration of Charles II, May-day fes-
rivals were revived, but they did not
take hold of the people as they had
done. In the Strand, London, there
was a May-pole which was not taken
down till 171S. Pope in his biting
satire of the Dunciad, speaks of
where the tall May-pole overlooked
the Strand" This last relic of by
gone past time was removed by Sir
Isaac Newton and a portion of it sent
to Wanstead Park, there to be used as
the support or understand of the then
largest telescope in the world.
The May day festivals dwindled
away till about forty years ago the
sweeps of London. These used to go
round dressed in tawdry finery repre-
senting the lord, the lady, Jack-in-the-
Green, and a miscellaneous following.
This was a survival of the old idea of
Robin Hood, and Maid Marion. Jack
in the Green was duplication of
Sherwood Forest on the Medieval plan.
1t consisted of a frame work covered
with ivy leaves or other greenery car
ried by a man inside, whose face APP
peared through a hole, which was cut
out. In Midsummer Nights Dream
one of the mechanics in that never-to-
be-forgotten masque of Pyramus and
Thisbe, plays the part of a wall. This
application is entirely Elzabethan in
character.
But the sweeps have passed away
and such thing as Jack-in- the Green
and the rest of the crew could not be
found in the length and breadth of
Old England. And now we are once
more reviving the old idea. With us
it is no longer a religious ceremony,
nor is it period of license, The XII
lohana Art League wants to emphasize
among the young, the joy of the open
| ing summer. The children will sing,
and carry flowers, and will have i'm
pressed upon them the beauty of Nat
ure, and the goodness of the Creator
who has given us so beautiful a world
to live in, and which it our fault if we
do not enjoy.
The Art League is following in the
| footsteps of the great poets, there is
hardly one of them who has not cele'
brated May-day or the month of May
Wordsworth sings
"All the earth is gay,
Land and sea
Give themselves up to jollity
And with the heart of May
Doth every beast keep holiday"
Richard Bamfield writing at the enc
| of the sixteenth century says;
AS it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May
Sitting in the pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made
| one of Tennyson's sweetest shorter
poems is the May Queen" commen-
| cling
! You must wake and call me early,
call me early mother dear,
| Tomorrow is the merriest day of all the
glad new year"
To bring out this idea of the happi-
ness and beauty of growth is a step
! in the direction of uplifting the minds
! of children to the higher ideals. 1t is
taking them from the sordid cares of
| their surroundings and giving them an
opportunity to think of something more
existence. There will be close on to
five thousand children in this city
alone who will be impressed with the
May-day festival, and it is quite posi-
Bile that the idea will be taken up in
{ g Tg1a nd