When I was growing up, I loved hearing my Mother’s memories of May Day celebrations when she was a little girl. All of the girls in her Catholic school wore white dresses and made crowns of roses to venerate Mother Mary. I don’t remember doing that in Catholic school, but I still adore the energy of our Divine Mother, who is often represented by the purity of a Rose.
My mother passed away last winter, so this May Day, I listened to the song she used to sing on May Day. Some refer to it as the Crowning Song but its traditional title is Bring Flowers to the Rarest. The words to the first verse are beautiful and inspired me to make a May Day Crown in honor of my Mother, and also our Divine Mother, Queen of the Angels. Here are the lyrics:
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
Bring flowers of the rarest
bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest Rose of the vale!
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
May Day is also connected to the Celtic Fertility Festival of Beltane, which celebrates this time of year when the sun grows stronger, and the energies of abundance, love, vitality fertility and joy abound. This is a wonderful time to set an intention for what you want to give birth to in your life. Then of course, you have to mother and nurture this intention so that it can grow and flourish in the world.
Perhaps you aren’t feeling very creative or passionate in your life these days, and if so, it can help to begin treating yourself in a more nurturing, mothering manner. If you didn’t experience this type of soothing from your own mother, it can be deeply healing to connect with the Divine Mother, however the feminine aspect of the Divine is represented in your spiritual tradition.
