Did you Receive a Sprig of Lily of the Valley on May 1?
One of the things I love about having lived in different countries and traveling is being exposed
to different customs and cultures.
Growing up in Northern Germany a delicate little flower called
Maigloeckchen (translated as “Little May bells”) or Lily of the Valley in
English was always a delightful reminder that Spring was finally here.
This flowering plant is a native in the Northern Hemisphere of Europe and Asia. Its little white flowers are bell-shaped and are clustered on a sprig. Don’t be deceived by its tiny size, delicately sweet scent, as it is quite poisonous if eaten by humans or pets. In fact, in 2014, this little beauty was chosen to be the “Poisonous Plant of the Year”.
However, in France, the tradition of giving a sprig of lily
of the valley dates back to the Renaissance.
It is a lucky charm to chase away the curse of winter and wish the
recipient good luck and happiness.
Legend has it that in 1560, King Charles IX and his mother Catherine de
Medici visited the Drôme, where he was presented with a sprig of lily
of the valley. He found the gesture so
charming, that the following year, he offered a sprig to each of the ladies of
the court, and decreed that the tradition be carried on each year.
It is such a lovely tradition. The flower is a symbol of springtime and
symbolizes youth, flirtation, and the return of happiness. Share this delicate
flower with your friends and family to wish them happiness and good
fortune. Please, just don’t eat it or feed it to
your pet!
May 1st or May Day
May Day has always had several meanings and also different
significances to me. Growing up in
Northern Germany, May Day or the first day of May was always dedicated to the
working person as the day of the year celebrating labor, ie Labor Day. As such, “May Day” is celebrated in Europe,
as well as Latin America, and also in parts of Africa and Asia. I presume this is due to the influences of European colonialization.
By contrast, in the US and Canada Labor Day is celebrated on the first
Monday in September.
May Day in many European countries had brought about
showing off the fruits of a country’s industrial strength and power, via
elaborate and impressive parades. Back
in the day, many of these parades featured troops and military vehicles, including
tanks. Remember the news footage from
Moscow, showing off their military might in the May Day parades?
Mayday, mayday, mayday
I had always wondered about the origins of the distress
signal “Mayday” used by mariners and aviators.
When the word is repeated three times in a row, it signals a
life-threatening emergency. Why was an English
word used? My grandfather had told me when
he grew up that English was the language of commerce and business, French the
language of diplomacy, and German the language of science and technology. (Of
course, since the proliferation of the internet, all that has changed.)
I wondered if the Mayday call came about due to some disaster at sea or possibly a British merchant ship. I discovered that the mayday signal originated in the early 1920s. It actually seems to have come about as a mixture of French and English: “Venez m’aider” (French for “come and help me”). That phrase was shortened to “m’aider” or “help me”. M’aider became Mayday.
A simple phrase when said three times in a
row cannot be confused or mistaken for other phrases. Credit goes to Frederick Stanley Mockford, a
senior radio officer at London’s Croydon Airport. He developed the phrase in the 1920s when there
was a lot of air traffic between Croydon Airport in London, England, and Le
Bourget Airport in Paris, France. The
phrase “mayday, mayday, mayday” (“m’aider, m’aider, m’aider”) was clear and
unmistakable in both English and French.
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