May Day 2012

Happy May Day!

In England where I grew up, today would be a bank holiday, where everyone gets the day off work. There are many celebrations around the country that include may pole dancing, festivals, may queens and morris dancing. It is a very colorful, beautiful day if you know where to go for these festivals. The more traditional festivals have declined in popularity or at least visibility, but there has been a resurgence of new forms of this celebrations across the country.


In America, May Day is now also Law Day, a day to reflect on the importance of laws in the foundation and continuation of American society. This makes today an interesting choice for the Occupy Wall Street protest that occurred today, a fact which the protesters do seem to be aware of.

It is no coincidence either that there are so many worldwide celebrations involving change and the earth in some way or another at this time of year. May Day celebrates fertility, the beginning of the planting season; halfway between spring and summer. It is appropriate then that everybody and their neighbor seems to be working the soil and planting seeds, perhaps even hardening off and transplanting seedlings that they have started indoors. It is an exciting time of year.

I love these old celebrations that remind us of times gone by when everybody lived by the cycle of the seasons. They give me hope for a return to that way of life. To a new era of sustainability, of connection to our mother earth and fellow man.

Just this morning, at my local breastfeeding support group the conversation turned to gardening. It turns out, every single person there either has a garden, is actively starting one, or has a close relative with farmland that they help out on.

What gives you hope for positive change? How have others surprised you in regard to resourcefulness, preparedness, or just having a green thumb?