May Day is a day for flowers, sunshine, and love….
May Day has been a special day ever since I was a little girl. All six of us siblings would make colorful baskets with construction paper and glue. We would fill our baskets full of flowers from our Mother’s garden. Then when our Mother was inside our home, we would place the baskets outside the front door, ring the doorbell…and run to hide in the bushes.
We would wait with eager anticipation for our Mother to open the door. Every May Day, without fail, she would look right and left and then say in a perplexed tone, “I wonder who rang my doorbell.”
She would ignore the nearby rustling bushes where all six of her children were hidden. Then just before she closed the door, she would glance down and discover six beautifully handmade paper baskets filled with an abundance of spring blossoms.
This was the moment that we all were waiting for. She would exclaim, “Oh my gosh, what beautiful flowers. Who could have left these for me?”
At that moment, we would all jump out of the bushes. She would gather us into her arms and give us all big hugs and kisses.
She would place all our flowers into an assortment of vases, and there our May Day flowers would stay until all the petals died and fell upon the multitude of tables and night stands throughout our home.
Through the years, I have kept the May Day tradition alive. When our children and grandchildren were very little, I showed them how to cut and glue together paper into the shape of a basket. And how to fill the baskets with spring blossoms for a special May Day surprise to be left outside the front door.
For decades I have heard the doorbell ring on May Day, and have exclaimed, “Who could have left all these beautiful flowers for me,” only to be surrounded by our dear children and grandchildren jumping out of the bushes. I have always showered them with hugs and kisses. And the spring blossoms would adorn our home for days on end.
This year on May Day, in my heart, I heard the doorbell ring….in memory of all the May Days of my past.
I went outside and I found that our friendly elk, had eaten most everything brightly colored in our mountain property—but much to my surprise, I found that they had left some beautiful May Day blossoms for us!
Since the elk had failed to make us any paper baskets to place the flowers inside, we didn’t shower them with hugs and kisses.