“Mayday, mayday, mayday” you probably recognise the call as being an internationally recognised distress call; but did you know that it originated at Croydon Airport, UK, in 1923?
Senior radio operator Frederick Mockford was asked to find a word which would be easily recognised and came up with ‘mayday’ based on the French phrase ‘venez m’aider’.
Still with Croydon Airport, it was from here that Amy Johnson took off for Australia on a May day – May 5th 1930 – 82 years ago today – on her solo flight; making history as the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in a light aircraft.
But what, you may be asking, has all this to do with May Day celebrations, you know: Morris Men; girls with flowers on their heads dancing round Maypoles; May blossom? May blossom being a local name for the hawthorn flower which blooms in May.
Why do we celebrate May Day?
May Day, Beltane in the Celtic calendar, is celebrated in the Northern hemisphere as the first day of summer. Certainly May is when the flowers and crops grow in earnest, the days are longer so more work can be achieved out in the fields and plots and life seems full of…life.
Jack-in-the-Green – a traditional character in May Day parades – is covered with greenery and many people consider him (it?) to be very similar to or the same as the Green Man. The Green Man dates back to at least Medieval Britain, if not Anglo Saxon and Celtic before that. It is an embodiment of nature, a fertility symbol, a spirit of the woods and greensward.
This is where it can all get caught up with the Wild Man, Robin Goodfellow, Woodwose, Puck (see our Midsummer Nights Dream garden inpiration) Robin Hood…you get the drift? These elementals creep into our gardens in all sorts of ways. For example, there’s a Snowdrop ‘Robin Hood’
Spring and fertility are obviously closely linked in agrarian and rural communities; the harvest was important; without it people and livestock didn’t survive the winter.
All you urbanites out there might not realise it, but the harvest is still important, although these days we import more food than we grow in Britain, that just makes us rely on the harvests in other countries not just our own.
Fertility rites could be more important than we think…perhaps we all need to be more in tune with the seasons, with ‘nature’, with life…
“Jack do you never sleep,
Does the green still run deep in your heart?
Or will these motorways, power lines, keep us apart?
Well, I don’t think so; I saw some grass growing through the pavements today”
But don’t let us forget modern traditions such as the London to Hastings May Day motorbike run. I mean, some bikers are gardeners too, you know…
At Plews we care about the environment and biodiversity; we can design gardens that are easy maintenance and good for both you and the environment. And if you’d like to learn how to garden, we have a qualified garden teacher able to do just that.
Why not drop us an email or give us a ring and see how May Day needn’t be ‘mayday’
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Lines from ‘Jack in the Green’ written & performed by Ian Anderson from album ‘Songs in the Wood’ Jethro Tull 1977
