It’s gonna be May on Wednesday.
I know.
But there we are.
We humans have long celebrated the arrival of May.
Take Floralia, for example. Flora was a Roman goddess of flowers, vegetation and fertility. Spring, basically.
The licentious festival held in her name at exactly this time of year sounds like a lot of fun to me: flowers in your hair, food and booze in your belly and….er, naked dancing.
Was Floralia the inspiration for both the Celtic Beltain and then later our very own May Day?
Ollie Cromwell certainly thought so, and banned the whole ‘heathenish’ practice for generally being far too much fun.
And May Day's links with International Workers’ Day are much more recent. It was only in 1978 that May Day was declared a Bank Holiday by Michael Foot, Labour’s Secretary of State for Employment.
So it turns out that all roads do, in fact, lead to Rome.
Especially if you dance down them naked.
Happy Floralia.
Nick
PS – the market is open for all your feasting requirements. |
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