Today was May Day. The day is not an official holiday in the US, but it is celebrated by many as a spring festival.

I remember as a kid we would sometime hang May Day baskets on the doorknobs of our neighbors.

May Day also makes me think about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Maypole of Merry Mount. There is a lot to learn from the community that was founded in the Massachusetts Colony by Thomas Morton. Unfortunately it is a part of history overlooked and unheeded.

In Europe May Day is widely celebrated and is a public holiday. The way that it is celebrated varies widely by country. The celebrations are often based on local traditions, many of which have pagan origins.

However, they have one thing in common in that they celebrate the transition of the seasons.

In many areas of the world May Day is also International Worker’s Day. Here in the US we have a separate Labor Day in the fall so International Worker’s Day is not celebrated here.

I really like this time of year when the flowers are blooming and the heat of summer has not yet arrived.

It also marks the time when the beautiful green hills that we have here in California during the spring start to fade to a golden brown.

See Colorful Hills and The Changing Altamont to see more pictures of this area.

However, do not get May Day mixed up with mayday the international call of distress. The word mayday comes from the French phrase for ‘come and help me’. With the advent of radio, mayday mayday mayday replaced the morse code call SOS. The call is repeated three times to make sure that it is not lost in other radio noise.

I hope that you had time today to enjoy the May Flowers that were brought by April Showers.

Steven