SPRING FEVER

Painters rub turps onto the palette knife

Ready to reanimate old still life

Undergrads poison pigeons in the park

Bargees creosote the hull of their ark

To Eliza Doolittle comes the thrill

Of Spring creepin’ over ‘er windowsill

Last year’s leverets from hibernation

Box in testosterone altercation

In suburban Beds., Bucks. and Herts. survives

The ritual where the stay-at-home wives

Burn fingers, cut hands, snag tights, lose lashes

Pull muscles, slip discs, drop plates, break glasses

The life cycle calls for CrossFit routine Furniture shifting to rupture the spleen

The Mole this year has broken these habits

Scuttling past docile sleepy-eyed rabbits

Tormenting each one with “Onion-sauce!”

To meet Ratty down at the water course

In offices that have wintered unmanned Public spending must be swiftly replanned

Unspent funds clamour to be reapplied

From the daft schemes where no-one could decide

What to do or when or how to do it

Another case to file under “Blew It”

Protecting next year’s full allocation

The paradigm this year’s backwardation

So

On gender determination courses

To themselves they build a triumphal arch

We must beware these Ideas of March Rex di

March 15th 2023

We associate baby hares, baby chicks, and catkins with the celebration and it is easy to understand why as they also appear at this time of year. Easter is one of the movable festivals and the time it was held was calculated in accordance to the lunar calendar. In its pre-Christian form it was the same festival as what we now regard as May Day.

The May Pole

There are several origins for the May Pole, all of which are observed by different European cultures. The festival of the Rosalia Signorum is the earliest form of the ‘May Pole’, recorded in Britain.

Later the Saxons and the Norse all acquired the May pole tradition and its symbolism may be related to the practice of bringing a Yule (Christmas) tree into the home.

Their pole was seen as a symbol of Yggdrasil, the world tree, who they believed, its branches held up the sky.

The pole was basically just a thin tree trunk stripped of its branches. It would often be decorated with garlands. The tradition of placing the pole in the same place each year such as a village green may be connected to the significance of the shadow that was cast from it each day at sun rise. This would mark the progress of the sun as the season changed into the Summer Solstice in June.

The use of ‘Eostre’ (Easter) in the Christian calendar was an expedient to adapt the newly converted northern Europeans to the new faith at that time, Christianity and allowing them to retain many but not all of their old traditions. When we look at Easter today other than the later additions of the resurrection of Christ, all of the traditions surrounding it are pre-Christian.

The May Queen

The May Queen dates back to the early preChristian roots of the festival. The Queen represents the practice of human sacrifice in Germanic traditions. The Queen would be chosen and treated literally as a Queen. She would be given fine clothes, jewellery, food and drink before being sacrificed to the gods. Due to modern health and safety guidelines this is no longer allowed!

During the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, May Day like many other festivals, was banned. This ban continued until his death and was eventually restored in 1660. The Maypole has and continues to be seen as an anti-religious symbol by some churches.

The tradition of attaching ribbons to the pole for dancing are from the 19th Century rather than being an ancient tradition.

May Day remains less associated to a particular religion and is still a universal celebration of the return of Spring.

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