Comments on: The Many Meanings of May Day

By: Hitomi

Hitomi — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:49:00 +0000

May 1 in the Philippines is Labor Day. Holiday for all! Beaches are usually full on that day(the city where i come from). I got wasted the night before.

By: ab

ab — Sat, 02 May 2009 22:59:00 +0000

May Day is HUGE at Bryn Mawr College, complete with a May Pole, as well as a “May Hole,” feminism’s answer to the phallic May Pole. Everyone wears white and has flowers in their hair, and lays about on the grass for the day. Breakfast is strawberries and cream and nutella!

By: Susanna

Susanna — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:38:00 +0000

Just to add to what Merlinsmom says, Dagon didn’t “die” in the Flood. The Philistines captured the ark of God, which was a symbol of God’s presence, from the Israelites and put it into Dagon’s temple next to the statue of Dagon. In the morning, the idol had fallen over and its head and hands had broken off (1 Samuel 5:1-5).

By: Daphne

Daphne — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:30:00 +0000

At the high school I attended in northern Illinois, May Day is still celebrated. The junior girls escorted by the junior boys dress in fancy dresses and wrap the May Pole; the sophomore girls hold flags to create an “arch” under which the the May Queen candidates pass. It’s a big deal…and it’s been going on for 70 or 80 years. So it’s a holiday that’s still alive and kickin’.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:19:00 +0000

May Day, or Vappu as it’s called, is huge in Finland. May 1st is a national holiday, and on vapunaatto (May Day eve) people get together to celebrate spring. At least that’s the excuse Finns use to go out and get drunk. Usually it is warm enough this time of year for people to hang out in parks, on patios etc. The festivities continue on May 1st with parades, outdoor concerts, picnics and more. Since people enjoy alcoholic beverages in excess, it tends to get really messy and cities spend a lot of money on the clean up afterwards.
Growing up in Finland, May Day was one of my favorite holidays. Every year we would make simaa (non-alcoholic mead). It takes about a week for it to be ready, but as a kid it seemed longer. You know it’s ready when the raisins rise to the top. And if you let it sit too long it turns into alcohol. I knew many kids who got their first buzz this way. With simaa you have to eat tippaleipÃ¤Ã¤ (funnel cakes), and this is the only time during the whole year you eat/drink tippaleipÃ¤Ã¤ and simaa.

By: Merlinsmom

Merlinsmom — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:46:00 +0000

Sorry, but the Philistines were WAY after Noah. Dagon was worshiped in the time of Samuel, before King Saul, quite a few generations after the Flood.

By: Kikadee

Kikadee — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:58:00 +0000

When I lived in Germany in the mid-1980s, May Day celebrations [Tanz in den Mai = Dance to bring in the month of May] were a big deal, with bonfires and beer halls and oom-pa-pa bands.

(Actually, I’m pretty sure they’re still a big deal, as I doubt they stopped celebrating just because I moved away : )

Now that I think of it, it was precisely twenty years ago today that I lost my front tooth at a Tanz in den Mai celebration! Drunken hijinks. I won’t say anything more.