In 1895 workers were still being honored.
And back into deep history, the pagans would celebrate the springtime with sharing flowers, dancing a May-pole dance, or washing their faces with the first dew of morning.
2008 intergenerational Maypole dance at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley
Some years back I was happy to celebrate the wheel of the year's springtime rituals (I'm on the left in black lace in the last photo.)
There were perhaps some bonfires lit on May eve last night somewhere, with young dancers who might or might not remember that the old ritual included walking the cattle through the smoke of fires before setting them out for their summer pastures...perhaps to kill off any vermin. And the other aspect of spring's arrival would be the coupling of humans in the woods of May eve! The story of the king's mating with the goddess was also linked to May Day.
Today our myths should add how we are all stewards of this earth, and all her beings of flora or fauna. Our ecological consciousness is invited to remember that our children's future, and that of their children unto the seventh generation (I like borrowing phrases from other sources!) depends on our saving what is left of the world of nature.
And to echo other posts of mine, may the political situation return to working to serve the needs of our great nation, in a peaceful manner.
Today's quote:
The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.
-Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)
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Update on current news:
From the Facebook page of the Unitarian Universalist Association at about 3:15 pm on April 30, 2025...
We celebrate the release of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi from federal custody. He was arrested by ICE on April 14 while attending a naturalization interview. Outside the courthouse today, he told supporters:
“I want to thank my people in Vermont. I’ve always learned that home is where you feel safe and loved — and those who surround you there are my people, and you are my people. In Vermont, we have the people and the representatives — Democrats and Republicans, spiritual people and intellectual people — all come together to say, ‘The people united will never be defeated.’”Mohsen’s release is a testament to the power of community — the people who showed up, spoke out, and refused to be silent. But the fight is far from over.As one supporter noted, this wave of detentions echoes the fear-driven politics of the Red Scare and McCarthyism — chapters of U.S. history we must not repeat. We must keep showing up for one another and resisting systems that criminalize immigration and dissent.
