'wOw Friend' Caterine Milinaire Explains Why Lily of the Valley is the May Day Flower

Beautiful custom and memories.

Thank you for that Caterine. I have always loved these precious little flowers.

I never knew these sweet flowers were “officially” associated with luck, happiness and renewal…but that is what they were to me, when I was very little, two or three, and would creep around the Rhodadenrons surrounding our house, crouching down with anticipation, to see these darling little dangles of bells poking up from the dark and fragrant earth. They made me happy, and insomuch as a three year old needs reassurance, they made everything all right!

We celebrate the same way in Belgium. No matter where I lived in the USA I always had Lilly of the valley in my yard. I have them in white and light rose. Today I was kind of sad not to see the small bouquets in the lapels.

Dear Caterine~Thank you for your FABULOUS photos and for the wonderful memories that put a smile on my face. I love Paris on May Day. There’s a festive air with people wearing and giving lily-of-the-valley. Fancy meals are prepared or everyone goes out. I especially love that on May 1st the golden Saint Joan of Arc statue off the Rue Rivoli is piled with mountains of flowers at its base…(but sadly not in this photo)
http://images.travelpod.com/users/kitkatgo/eng-fr-feb-07.1171674060.100_…

Once we had a May Day dinner celebration outside the City in a huge round dark room with wood beam ceilings and round wood tables for 12 that looked out immense gleaming windows onto a forest. It was so busy that people were seated at tables with strangers. We sat amongst six very handsome Italian soccer team members who were on the road back to Italy and wound up drinking Veuve Clicquot, laughing our heads off, and singing “Santa Lucia” over and over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCBZxpoqIc&feature=related

I’d worn a tiny “Muguet Porte Bonheur” tucked in my hair. Indeed it had worked! That was an unforgettable May Day dinner ;)

What’s fun on May Day in Paris is that everyone has the right to sell the lilies-of-the-valley, even children. This is a rare treat in the over-regulated French society— where even tag sales are allowed only once a year and strictly controlled, as “unfair competition” to antique dealers! Entrepreneurial ones always set up stands on our street corner after buying big bouquets elsewhere. They would repackage them one or two sprigs at a time, and sell them at exorbitant prices to passersby.

Another May Day tradition that is dying out is the May Pole. In Bavaria, where I lived for a while, all the pretty little villages have a tall blue May Pole in the center of town. Occasionally there are still May Pole winding ceremonies, where girls wrap ribbons around the May Pole in a dance.

In England, there are still places where the girls go to the meadows at dawn to collect dew for their faces on May Day. I love all these old traditions.

In our lives today, we have become a society of “Me” and in doing so we have lose, a great deal of simple pleasures that life has to offer us. By looking outside of our selves and truly connecting with our surroundings, we will discover the magic of ever season and of every moment. Would that not be a wonderful place to retreat to, the mournful song of a dove, the return of the robin after a long winter, the sweet smells of spring flowers, a warm smile from a passing stranger, a fish leaping from a pond/river, the musical humming of insects? Can you imagine what every day would feel like if we move out of the Me mode and connect to the WE mode. The delight of Magic would return and who would We be if We live with a sense of wondrous curiosity every moment of the day and what could We accomplish?

Such lovely memories of lily of the valley. My mother, long dead, received these beauriful flowers nestling on wet moss, in a box when I was born. A May baby, also long ago!