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May, 2018          The Antique Shoppe          Page 15
                                     MAY DAY - FORGOTTEN HOLIDAY


           by Roy Nuhn

           May Day. It’s a long-forgotten holiday that was once                                            MAY DAY POSTCARDS —
        enthusiastically celebrated. But that was during the 19th                                            Postcards for May Day are not the holiday greetings
        century and the earliest decades of the 20th. Luckily for                                         types we find for other holidays. They were not intended
        us, we have many, many postcards of this once widely                                              for exchanging. Instead cards of this minor, now forgotten
        enjoyed rite of spring.                                                                           holiday were mostly real photo types portraying May
           May Day goes back to at least the time of the Romans                                           Day ceremonies and celebrations, especially on college
        who honored the goddess Flora with the yearly festival.                                           campuses, where it was a popular tradition.
        For countless centuries afterward, it was celebrated  by                                             Notable  for  cards  in  this  regard  were  Randolph-
        various Latin and Germanic tribes.                                                                Macon Women’s College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the
           In Colonial times in this country May Day was the                                              University of Illinois in Champaign.
        cause of joyous revelry.  A garlanded pole occupied a                                                Also, to be found are  scenes of elementary  school
        place of honor in such activities; it was the central focus                                       May Day activities, which are also sought by local view
        of the joy-filled times. The early Puritan fathers of New                                         card collectors. Many of these pre-1920 postcards were
        England, however, disapproved of May Day and sternly   Part of postcard set by J. Percy Clarke, photographer.   by major view card publishers. A. Kohler, for example,
        punished all those caught up in its holiday spirit.          Probably English, 1905 or 1906.      printed a view of a celebration in New York City’s Central
           For most of the 1800 to 1940 era in this country, May                                          Park; American  News  Co.  did  one  of  Prospect  Park  in
        Day was a young people’s holiday and even more so a                                               Brooklyn, N.Y., and the venerable Detroit Publishing Co.,
        children’s affair for most of the 20th century.               THE MAY QUEEN                       in 1905, issued one captioned “Maypole Dance, Central
           May Day celebrated the end of winter and the coming        By Alix Thorn                       Park, New York.” There were also cards of the holiday
        of Spring. Children danced around the May-pole, which     A floating veil hid her yellow curls;   being celebrated in England, though these are a bit hard
        was often located on the town green. Young people also       Her crown was paper flowers,         to come by.
        walked or rode on horseback to nearby villages  and      And the children sang as they marched along,  Some notable  series postcards were also published.
        towns. In many ways May Day was a day of moving,           “See this lovely queen of ours!”
                                                                 With her head held high while the drum beat loud
        when people, mostly young adults, kept moving from         She trod on her royal way
        place  to place.  Both here and in England,  where the     Through the city streets to the distant park,
        holiday was equally enjoyed, these events were part of       This stately Queen of May.
        “Going A-Maying.”                                        But When they reached the grassy slopes
                                                                   Forgot was the pomp and pride;
                                                                 The queen straightway hung up her veil,
                                                                   And laid her crown aside,
                                                                 While all her subjects ran and raced
                                                                   Throughout the happy day.
                                                                 With flying curls she let the throng,
                                                                   This merry Queen of May.
                                                                 Then when the western sun sand low,
                                                                   And shadows nearer crept,
                                                                 Her majesty straight donned her crown,
                                                                   And slow and proudly stepped;             “May Days,” pre-World War I allegorical, color postcard
                                                                 And though the flags drooped wearily,                   (unknown publisher).
                                                                   Though long the homeward way,
                                                                 In spite of rips, in spite of rents,
                                                                   She still was Queen of May.            Important among these is a set of three or more by

              Photograph with “Twineham School May 1st 1912”         “The May Queen” taken from           “Strauch’s Student Life Series” about the University of
          handwritten on front. Probably shot with a Kodak box camera.   May 2, 1907 issue of “The Youth’s Companion”  Illinois, in Champaign. Quite impressive, however, is a
                                                                                                                             lengthy set of at least 36 by J. Percy
                                                                         Illustrated page from                               Clarke of the May Day events in
           Ladies  of all  ages made  colorful baskets by hand        “The Youth’s Companion”                                a  place  called  Llangollen.  This
        and filled them with flowers. These were then given to     magazine’s May 1908 issue.→                               might  well  be English  or some
        relatives and friends as gifts.                                                                                      other nationality.
           By 1900 May Day had become a holiday celebrated                                                                     Some artistic  color postcards,
        mostly by schoolchildren, from elementary to college level,                                                          incorporating  artist illustrations,
        in the schoolyard, in playgrounds, in                                                                                were also published and sold. One
        parks, or on town greens. A 12-foot,                               ←Illustration from                                of these, No. 24 by an unidentified
        or taller, May-pole, usually freshly                               the Children’s                                    publisher and titled “May Days,”
        chopped down in the nearby woods                                   Page (“The Youth’s                                shows  three young women
        and  decorated  with  fresh  flowers,                              Companion’s”                                      dancing  among  the  flowers  and
        leaves,  and  nosegays, was erected                                May 2, 1913                                       bushes.
        and long ribbons fastened to it. The                               issue).                                             As a holiday, the first day of May
        girls braided the ribbons and then                                                                                   is no longer of any consequence.
        sang and danced around the pole                                                                                      In Russia and in other Communist
        while holding onto the ribbons.                                                                                      countries from 1945 to 1990, May
           Often during May Day festivities,                                                                                 Day was a patriotic holiday noted
        a young girl, usually a teenager, was                                                                                for gigantic military parades and
        crowned  Queen of the  Maytide. A                                                                                    massive  displays  of  firepower.
        floral ring was placed in her hair and                                                                               With the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
        she became the spirit of spring. To                                forum for the holiday. Offered to its   that is also past history.
        her the revelers paid homage.                                      youthful readers were illustrations,   But  now, in  the  21st century, May Day is just  a
           Most juvenile  magazines  of the                                poems and short vignettes about the   footnote in the cultural history book. We do, thankfully,
        early 20th century featured May                                    holiday. In the May 2, 1913, issue,   have many postcards to remind of a holiday that was once
        Day themes  during the  month.                                     for instance, the central illustration   quite important and greatly enjoyed.
        Notable for doing this was “Youth’s                                showed birds and dressed animals   Collectors also seek out the many magazine illustrated
        Companion,” which always turned                                    of the forest doing “The May-Pole   articles of the occasion. notably among these are the late
        its monthly “Children’s Page” into a                               Dance.”                        1890s and early 1900s issues of “Youth’s Companion.”
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