All are welcome to join the fun, the silliness, the conversations. If you don’t know...just ask! Some things really do require a bit of explanation.
There will be a few surprises along the way, all good ones, we hope.
We are here to keep building the Daily Kos Community.
We post Mon-Sun at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
Pie fights will be met with outrageous ridicule and insults. Trolls will be incinerated and served at the next group BBQ. As briquettes.
My earliest recollection of dancing around a May day pole was at some Girl Scout festival as a young’un. About 10 years later a goofy group of people in my college dorm set up an impromptu one on the lawn outside our dorm for an afternoon frolic.
The earliest known May celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held from 27 April – 3 May during the Roman Republic era, and the Maiouma or Maiuma, a festival celebrating Dionysus and Aphrodite held every three years during the month of May.[3] The Floralia opened with theatrical performances. In the Floralia, Ovid says that hares and goats were released as part of the festivities. Persius writes that crowds were pelted with vetches, beans, and lupins. A ritual called the Florifertum was performed on either 27 April or 3 May,[4][5] during which a bundle of wheat ears was carried into a shrine, though it is not clear if this devotion was made to Flora or Ceres.[6][7] Floralia concluded with competitive events and spectacles, and a sacrifice to Flora.[8]
Maiouma was celebrated at least as early as the 2nd century AD, when records show expenses for the month-long festival were appropriated by Emperor Commodus.[9] According to the 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas, the Maiouma was a "nocturnal dramatic festival, held every three years and known as Orgies, that is, the Mysteries of Dionysus and Aphrodite" and that it was "known as the Maioumas because it is celebrated in the month of May-Artemisios". During this time, enough money was set aside by the government for torches, lights, and other expenses to cover a thirty-day festival of "all-night revels."[10] The Maiouma was celebrated with splendorous banquets and offerings. Its reputation for licentiousness caused it to be suppressed during the reign of Emperor Constantine, though a less debauched version of it was briefly restored during the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, only to be suppressed again during the same period.[9]
A later May festival celebrated in Germanic countries, Walpurgis Night, commemorates the official canonization of Saint Walpurga on 1 May 870.[11] In Gaelic culture, the evening of April 30th was the celebration of Beltane (which translates to "lucky fire"), the start of the summer season. First attested in 900 AD, the celebration mainly focused on the symbolic use of fire to bless cattle and other livestock as they were moved to summer pastures. This custom continued into the early 19th century, during which time cattle would be made to jump over fires to protect their milk from being stolen by fairies. People would also leap over the fires for luck. en.wikipedia.org/...
The best known modern May Day traditions, observed both in Europe and North America, include dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the tradition of giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.
Giving of May baskets was still a thing when I was a young girl in the 1960s, even if we only gathered a basket of flowers and petals to “give” to the family dining table.
The first trip I made to Hawaii was at about age 16. My dad was attending an Ag. science conference hosted by Univ. of Hawaii, and he decided to turn it into a mini family vacation. We stayed at a hotel adjacent to Queen Kapiolani Park. While out exploring on May 1 we were pleasantly surprised to find the Lei Day festivities taking place there.
Lei Day is a statewide celebration in Hawaii. The celebration begins in the morning of May first every year and continues into the next day. Lei day was established as a holiday in 1929. Each Hawaiian island has a different type of lei for its people to wear in the celebration. {snip}
Each island of Hawaii has a specific Lei which makes great variety in the leis being produced from each part of Hawaii. The island of Kauai's lei is actually a type of fruit. These purple berries are strung around and leave a blossoming smell that can only be found on this island. Kahoolawe's is called hinahina and this is found on the beaches of Kahoolawe, the stems and flowers of this plant are twisted together to be formed. The island of Lanai has a kaunaoa Lei. The light orange thin strands of vine are gathered in groups and twisted together. The island of Maui houses the lokelani Lei. Its color is pink and is sweet scented and very fragile. Molokai is home to the kukui. The leaves are mostly silver green and combined together to be made into a lei. Niihau is a smaller island, but is very plentiful of pupu. White pupu shells have to be pierced with small holes to be strung into a lei. Oahu has the `Ilima flower. This yellow lei is very thin and even more fragile. This specific lei is often called the "Royal lei" because in the past it was worn by high chieftains.
Each year, the Lei Queen and her court preside over the festivities. Lei Queen are selected based on their lei making skills, hula proficiency, and Hawaiian language fluency. Expect to see the most beautiful lei in the world at the annual Lei Day lei competition held and displayed at the park. www.hawaii.com/...
Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labour movements grew, a variety of days were chosen by trade unionists as a day to celebrate labour. 1 May was chosen to be International Workers' Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago.[8] In that year beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. On 4 May, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event led to the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; sixty police officers were injured, as were an unknown number of civilians.[9] Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice.[10][nb 1] The following day on 5 May in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard.[12]
In 1889, a meeting in Paris was held by the first congress of the Second International, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne that called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests.[6] May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891.[citation needed] Subsequently, the May Day riots of 1894 occurred. The International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."[7] The congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organisations of all countries to stop work on 1 May, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."[7]
In the United States and Canada, a September holiday, called Labor or Labour Day, was first proposed in the 1880s. In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed a Labor Day holiday on the first Monday of September[nb 2] while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York.[13] Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882,[14] after witnessing the annual labour festival held in Toronto, Canada.[15] In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty US states officially celebrated Labor Day.[14] Thus by 1887 in North America, Labour Day was an established, official holiday but in September,[16] not on 1 May. en.wikipedia.org/...
Hawaiian Bacon & Pineapple Breakfast Bake
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup crumbled cooked bacon (about 14 slices)
- 1 cup cubed fully cooked ham
- 3/4 cup pineapple tidbits
- 1 package (12 ounces) Hawaiian sweet rolls, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/2 cup coarsely crushed french-fried onions
Directions
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, Worcestershire sauce and mustard until blended. Stir in cheeses, bacon, ham and pineapple. Gently stir in cubed rolls. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Refrigerate, covered, several hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Remove casserole from refrigerator while oven heats. Bake, uncovered, 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, sprinkling with onions halfway through baking. Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting.