Queen of the May

Did you know it’s May Day today? In the northern hemisphere this time of year was traditionally celebrated with dancing around maypoles and the crowning of a May Queen in honour of springtime fertility. The origin of May Day holidays lie in the festivals of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Gaelic Beltane.

I am crowning myself Queen of the May today with a vintage 1950s red velvet bandeau bedecked in silk flowers. This gathering of red and white carnations is over-the-top in both senses of the word. 

Queen Guinevere’s Maying, John Collier, 1900

May Day, being a spring festival, is not celebrated in Australia since May falls in autumn (pardon the pun). What a pity, because what silly fun it must be to skip around a flower-bedecked maypole like Guinevere. Amusingly, Wikipedia describes a May Day procession as ‘cheerfully pointless’ – but that’s the point surely? Everyone feels more lighthearted when the sun shines, and when better to throw an alfresco party!