May is my favorite month of the year here in northeast Ohio. I love the blossoms, the birds singing in the mornings and nesting nearby ~ our robins are back in the pine tree outside our dining room window ~ and of course, the warmer weather.

A perfect time for celebrating with songs and rituals for May Day!

Read on for a song recording, ideas for celebrating May Day, and my favorite resources for festivals.

May Day is a lovely ritual that dates back to ancient Celtic traditions which fused with Roman and Greek rituals honoring the goddess of spring. The rituals include dancing around a maypole while singing songs, making flower crowns, and eating May Day cake.

I encourage you to gather with some friends or your own family later this week or weekend. To celebrate this halfway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.

I love thinking back on all those years of dancing around the Maypole and singing. We carry those memories with us forever and so do our children.

MAY DAY SONG

A song for May Day just for you. I talked my daughter into playing recorder while I sang!

Here’s a Branch of Snowy May

Ideas for Celebrating May Day

• Make your own maypole from a very large dowel (ours is over 6 feet). Purchase the dowel from a home supply store and attach ribbons to the top of the pole with a staple gun. To set it up, you can use a bucket of rocks and sand or a Christmas tree stand. Our pole has been part of many May Day celebrations!
• If you have more than one adult or some teens around, one of you could play “Here’s a Branch of Snowy May” on the recorder while the other sings!
• Making ankle bells is a sweet added touch. They jingle when you dance!
• For younger children, very simple patterns of dancing and skipping around the pole are best. Very young children can hold an adult’s hand while everyone walks in one direction wrapping the ribbons, or try the over under pattern.
• Layer cakes are beautiful decorated with icing and a small mini-pole made with a little dowel and small ribbons. Add some edible flowers and you have a piece of art! If you don’t have a chance to create a large maypole, a simple cake with a may pole decoration could be the perfect celebration!
• Make paper cones, fill them with flowers, and deliver them to friends and neighbors in secret.

FAVORITE RESOURCES

Here are two of my favorite resources for celebrating May Day and other festivals. These are referral links. You can read about my use of affiliate links here.

My favorite resources for celebrating May Day include two books: Festivals, Family and Food (by Carey & Large) and All Year Round (by Druitt, Fynes-Clinton and Rowling). (

Both books have printed music for some songs and other decoration ideas.

How will you be celebrating May Day this year?