All this May-time talk has put me in mind of a tradition I used to follow as a youngster.
The traditions around Mary, the Mother of Christ are very strong in Catholicism and I think romanticised as role model for girls and women. I won't go into the complexities of a Virgin-Mother as role model, but the Marian tradition as said is powerful.
The month of may is dedicated to Mary and it was (is?) traditional to have May Altars. I loved this as a child and always made one. I'd cover a surface with a cloth and place an image of Mary at the centre. There'd be a pair of candles and vases of wild flowers. I would go bluebelling to complete my altar. I loved violets, but they rarely lasted. Milkmaids were also in flower and I may pick some, but nothing had the abundance of bluebells. I sometimes picked hawthorn,but that didn't last well either and although my family were not superstitious about such things, I understand some found it a bad omen to have hawthorn blossom indoors.
I would solemnly recite my deckets of the rosary in front of my home-made altar for the month.
Of course the tradition was a hijacking of Pagan Spring rites, fallic Maypoles and Mayqueens.
The hymn we sang in May went
"Bring blossoms the fairest,
Bring flowers the rarest,
From gardens and hillsides
From woodlands and dales(?)...
Oh Mary we crown you with blossom today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May"
And it wasn't non-green to pick wild flowers in those days and they always grew back for the next year....
