Memories, May baskets & May poles

The first day of May has different meanings for people around the world.  For some people it's a day to remember all those who have struggled and sacrificed for better working conditions and benefits for laborers and the working class.  And for many other people it's a day to celebrate spring with a variety of traditions.

A favorite tradition from my childhood and then again with my children is making May Baskets.  Since I didn't have any pictures of May Baskets from any time in my past, I did a Google search for May Basket images.  Crazy!  NONE were as simple as what we used to make them, but maybe this picture came close:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/225672631299612949/

As I remember, my Mom had little paper cups she may have called nut cups.  I suppose Dixie cups could have been used but I'm not sure I remember having them back then.  Add a handle using pipe cleaners, colored if we were lucky, but probably white because they were actually used to clean pipes.  I probably decorated the cups a little, then added the candy, mints and nuts.  After we got them all put together, my Mom drove me around to deliver them to some chosen friends, both young and old.  Run up to the door, knock or ring the doorbell (if there was a doorbell back then), and then RUN back to the car or around the house to disappear quickly.  It was great fun!  The routine was pretty much the same when my girls were little, but the materials were a little more elaborate, as was the candy selection and we only did it if it was a tradition where we were living at the time. (Ask me about St. Nicholas Day sometime!) And I really only vividly remember doing it one year with Sara (Ellen was a baby), about 1985 and we ran through about 4 inches of snow getting to the door and back to the car.  Huh, snow in May back then, too! 

I was able to celebrate another May Day tradition when I lived in Germany while stationed in the Army in 1978.  We were out on a spring bike ride and came upon the raising of the May Pole in the Gersthofen Ratshausplatz, the area by City Hall.  It was quite a spectacle,  All the community service people--police, firemen, etc--were all working together to get that May Pole upright and decorated.  This was a larger city, but the tradition in the little villages would be to go out in the forest, find the tallest tree, and use that for the community May Pole.  Here are some pictures from that day. They are taken from slides, so the quality is not the best.

Decorated with symbols pertaining to the city of Gersthofen.

And no celebration is complete without the German brass band!  It was a fun day, and originally I probably had 50 pictures to record every step of the process.  I cut it down to 5 just for you!

May Day here today was rainy and dark, with promises of sun on the weekend.  On my trip to the Lake this afternoon, I saw one of the fishing boats, the Judy, coming back in from fishing.  I'm going to count this as Spring with a capital S, because I think it may be one the first times they actually got out on the lake to fish.

Happy May Day!