"And Ajax by mad passion borne stern had replied, fierce scorn enhancing scorn to fell extremes…"
We were in the final months of our tour in Commieland and I decided to take my oldest daughter down to the big May Day whoopitydoo near the monuments to Che Guevara and Jose Marti.
It was festive, but sad. A bunch of people dancing and celebrating the ideology that had kept them poor and oppressed.
I wore my Band of Horses shirt.
From FB:
“Walpurgis Night, an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German Sankt Walpurgisnacht), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May.Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling “pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft.” In Germanic folklore, Hexennacht, literally “Witches’ Night”, was believed to be the night of a witches’ meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft, as Saint Walpurga was successful in converting the local populace to Christianity. In parts of Christendom, people continue to light bonfires on Saint Walpurga’s Eve in order to ward off evil spirits and witches.”
From FB:
“The merry month of May is named after the goddess who is chief of the Greek Seven Sisters (the Pleiades) and the mother of Hermes. In legend it is said that Hermes himself bestowed his mother’s name upon the month, Maia Majestas – Goddess of Spring. The Irish Celtic Queen Medb (Maeve) was an incarnation of this goddess. She later became the fairy Queen Mab of Shakespeare.
The Anglo Saxon name of May was Thrimicmonath, “thrice-milk month,” because the cows gave milk three times daily during the month. Another old English name for May is Sproutkale, conjuring up visions of plant growth. The old Frankish name of the merry month, Winnemanoth (“joy month”) describes the pleasure of the coming Summer. The American backwoods name for the full moon of May is Flower Moon. In Scotland and Ireland the month was called Beltane, a pagan festival marked by the lighting of bonfires and the performance of rituals associated with the future well-being of livestock.
In the sixteenth century it was customary for the middle and humbler classes to go forth at an early hour of the morning in order to gather flowers and hawthorn branches, which they brought home around sunrise to decorate every door and window in the village. This was followed by the crowning of the Queen of the May (or May Queen if you’re into Led Zeppelin), supposedly the prettiest girl in the village and possibly the representation of the Roman goddess Flora, who was worshiped in the five-day festival of Floralia, which took place around this time in ancient Rome.
May 1st is considered one of the most important days of the year and is the month when nature makes its greatest display of fertility. Old poets delighted in describing the month as a beautiful maiden, clothed in sunshine, scattering flowers on the earth while she danced to the music of birds and brooks. Needless to say, the activities of May 1st also involved much amorous and riotous behavior among both young and old. The gathering of flowers and branches was not the only thing that went on in the woods that day and the thirsty work of dancing led to the quaffing of much ale, cider, and other locally brewed beverages. The merrymaking sometimes got out of hand leading to the condemnation of the whole May Day tradition in certain quarters.
In the mid-17th century the Puritans uprooted and destroyed the maypoles and banned all associated festivities. However, the celebrations were revived after the Restoration in 1660 and have continued in various forms to this day.
In Gloucestershire the spectacular annual cheese rolling event occurs during this month in which a large Double Gloucester cheese is released at the top of a precipitous slope at Cooper’s Hill and competitors chase after it. Many injuries are suffered and few people remain upright. The fastest down the hill wins the cheese and this ancient tradition remains popular to this day.”
Song Of Ajax 