Happy May Day!

Flora goddess of spring season + flowers

Happy May Day friends! What a nice segue for both my absence but too for May. Historically it was a Celtic pagan festival that spread to northern Europe and then to England and America. May Day in towns and villages of older Europe represented fertility in soil, livestock, and people. It was a day where farmers and laborers could rest from work and for townspeople to rejoice in village fêtes and gatherings! A day for others to celebrate Flora, goddess of springtime and flowers (Roman Catholics revered Mary). May baskets filled with sweets and flowers would be left on neighbors' steps. Dancing, floral crowns and ribbons danced around maypoles weaving beautiful patterns all the way down to the ground. Makes me wish our courtyard had a maypole. Flowers--linked with so much symbolism, story telling, folklore, and celebrations. They represent awakening! So here's to May!