May Day
May 1 is a day of contrasts: flowers and fire, celebration and protest, private generosity and public courage -- all held together in a single date.
May Day began in ancient Europe with the festival of Beltane, which was celebrated halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, marking the changing of seasons. Beltane welcomed longer days, fertile fields, and the promise of new life. Fires were lit on hilltops, and people and livestock would pass through the smoke as a symbolic act of protection and blessing for the months ahead. Communities gathered around the fires, and the world itself felt like it was waking up.
As centuries unfolded, those seasonal celebrations took on new forms. In medieval England, villages raised maypoles -- tall wooden poles adorned with flowers and ribbons -- around which dancers would circle, weaving patterns that symbolized unity and joy. Young people ventured out at dawn to gather wildflowers, returning with arms full of color to decorate homes and churches. “Bringing in the May” became a shared act of noticing beauty and marking time together.
In more recent history in some parts of the United States, people left small baskets filled with flowers or treats on a neighbor’s doorstep. The giver would ring the bell and run, leaving behind an unexpected gift. While the May basket tradition was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it mostly faded by the 1960s.
In 1886, May 1 took on a new layer of meaning when laborers across the United States organized a nationwide strike advocating for an eight-hour workday. In the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, a peaceful rally turned violent after a bomb was thrown, leading to a clash between protesters and police. That moment became a defining chapter in labor history, and May 1 is now recognized around the world as International Workers’ Day: a time to honor dignity and the value of human labor.
May Day holds a tension: It celebrates spring’s beauty and carries a call for justice. It invites us to look around -- at creation, at community, and at the ways people care for one another and advocate for what is right. At its heart, May Day is about paying attention to what is growing -- and choosing how we will participate in it.
Scripture reminds us that we are invited into that same pattern. In Romans 12, we are called to live lives that are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that transformation always finds expression in the way we love, serve, and show up for one another.
As we transition into May this week, here is our May Day invitation: Step outside and notice what is growing. Offer a small act of kindness that no one sees. Honor the work that sustains the people around you. And remember that the God who brings life out of winter is still at work, quietly and faithfully bringing renewal in places that are just beginning to bloom.