May Day Celebration Ideas

May Day occurs on May 1st and is generally celebrated as the beginning of spring. Twenty years ago, my siblings and I would make paper flowers, put them in baskets and leave them on the door steps of our elderly neighbors, friends and family in celebration of May Day. While it is celebrated in Europe, May Day has not gained a lot of popularity in America however its roots go back a long way. For the Druids it was believed to be the day that divides the year in half and was celebrated as Beltaine. In the middle ages, the English would erect maypoles in celebration. The villages would then compete with one another to see who could raise the tallest maypole.

Some typical ways May Day is celebrated is by crowning a May Queen, erecting a maypole and making May Day baskets and leaving them on the doors of your neighbors, friends and family members. Creating May Day baskets is a wonderful activity for preschoolers, daycares and even older kids and is guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of the person receiving the gift.

How to make paper flowers.

-Using child scissors, cut a half circle out of construction paper. Before finishing the circle make jagged zig zag cuts on the top.

-Cut out a long thin piece of green construction paper and paste it to the bottom of the flower.

-Do this as many times as you want to create a bouquet of flowers.

-Next, take a piece of construction paper and fold it around the flowers. This acts as the wrapping for the flowers and keeps them together.

Here are some suggestions on ways to celebrate May Day this year.

-You could create some May Days baskets with your children using silk flowers, candies, tea bags, fruit, etc and bring them to a local nursing home or retirement village. Not only is the basket itself a delight to the residents but seeing and interacting with your children is sure to make their day brighter.

-Using construction paper or cardstock, have your preschool class cut out flower shapes and paste stems on them. Create a bouquet of flowers and give to mom and dad.

-Using a tetherball pole at school, fashion your own may pole. Use long strings of streamers or ribbon and have your students wind through each other creating a design on the pole.