May Day 2020
May Day, May Day! - the distress signal used to signal an emergency situation, usually in a military or naval situation at a time of war. Why should it be the first connotation that occurs right now, I wonder, on this most special of days, when in other, less troubled times it was the day of the year when so many wonderful things were celebrated? In earlier times, on May Day, young girls would rise before dawn to wash their faces in dew in the belief that it would enhance their beauty. The best dew came from the hawthorn blossom – which is why it acquired its nickname of May blossom.
The fair maid who on the first of May
Goes to the fields at the break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after handsome be.
Garlands of spring flowers were made and paraded through the streets by milk maids and young women and children, carrying home-made May dolls. The king of all garlanders was Jack-in-the-green, a man dressed as a hedge, representing greenery and the original Green Man, a symbol of fertility and rebirth to mark the return of summer. A huge festival still takes place on May Bank holiday weekend, in Hastings each year, with much morris-dancing and singing, and folk dressed in strange animal disguises in a throwback to an earlier pagan tradition that coincided with the change of the seasons, known and celebrated in pagan times as Beltane. Maypoles were another fertility symbol, erected on village greens up and down the country to signify the start of summer and to bring good luck. Later on, in Victorian times they were bedecked with ribbons and danced around with music and songs. Choristers still sing from the towers of Magdalen College in Oxford on May morning at 6 a.m. to herald in the summer months. May Day was a time of hope and festivity, love and harmony, and the traces of these old traditions, thankfully, seep into the present still.
In actual fact, those very words were repeating in my head at day break today, and for the very best of reasons; as I was being woken by the piercing greeting of endless numbers of garden birds bursting into chorus, with their insistent singing – May Day! May Day! How could I not still feel the urgency of their song, the sweetness of their message. Summer is a-comin’ in!
And yet, it is true – at present in our every day world, each day feels like an emergency right now. The most ordinary of activities, such as a visit to the supermarket to fetch supplies, a walk in the park to take some exercise, even setting out in the car or on foot for any activity, feels overlaid with anxiety and uncertainty. Might you come into contact with someone who is unknowingly infected with the virus, might you be stopped and questioned by the police to ascertain where you are going and for how long or how far? Is your outing essential? The television, radio, media platforms, newspapers, talk of nothing else – the human cost of Covid 19 in terms of the loss of loved ones, the risk factor for the NHS workers in their everyday duties, the financial fall out in every conceivable area across the world, the City, the public and private business sector, retail, property, tourism – it goes on and on. So we stay home, sit tight and try to occupy our days, the confines of our world reduced now to the four walls of wherever that may be, and if we are lucky enough to have a garden, we consider ourselves blessed indeed. Meanwhile, the oppressive sense of not knowing when this will all end, or if life can ever return to its former state, continues to undermine our equilibrium. And still the birds sing.
Will life ever go back to the previous place, which now, in hindsight, seems such a carefree, innocent world? That is the thing that presses on us most of all. We have to believe that it can and it will, and that we will overcome this invisible enemy. We have to believe that there will come a time when we can all be together again, in the normal way, going about our normal lives, and sharing the love and laughter of family and friends again. We will never take those simple pleasures and freedoms for granted again. And those we have lost will never be forgotten, for they have paid the ultimate price. As we approach the 75th anniversary of VE Day on May 8th, perhaps we will be reminded even more poignantly of other generations, who fought and died, and came through to live again. So on this May Day, let’s heed the message of the spring and be hopeful, and let’s look to the future with, if not a song in our hearts, then hearts full of courage and love!