The first of the month was actually on the Bank Holiday Monday or ‘May Day’ as it used to be called. Not sure when it stopped being called May Day. At primary school we were fortunate to have a maypole around which we danced on the warm spring grass. It is one of my more delightful memories of schooldays. The modern May Day seems to have connotations of Communism and military marches. The old May Day evolved from the Celtic festival of Beltane celebrated on May 1st, midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when dancing took place.
This month saw the annual visit to Blackbury Camp to enjoy and admire the splendour of the bluebells amongst the magnificent beech trees. I took Mum on a perfect spring day when the bluebells were just out and at their finest, before heavy rain squashed some of their beauty. Sturdy plants that they are, they recovered to continue to give much pleasure, and were still splendid when I took Roy a few days’ later. Many more photographs were taken.
The following Monday saw a second Bank Holiday Monday which was held in honour of the new King’s Coronation on the preceding Saturday. Along with most the nation, those who were not lining the Mall, spent the day glued to the TV set, eating special food and becoming increasingly in awe of the proceedings. Somehow, the event combined majesty and humility and it was ‘shiver-down-the-spine’ time when the King to be emerged from the screen where the anointing had been done privately. He appeared incredibly vulnerable with very few robes and just a plain white gown on. Then the layering up of robes and the handing over of the symbols of State began until the King emerged in all his glory. Words cannot really describe the absolute sense of holiness and awe that filled me during this time. Charles really was transformed from Prince to King before our eyes.
The last Monday in the month was officially Spring Bank Holiday, having displaced Whit Monday back in the 1970s, although it was known as Whit Monday for a while longer than that. So, Whitsun has become submerged due to formalising the bank holiday for the last weekend of the month rather than have the holiday in line with the actual number of days since Easter. Whitsun or Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit appeared to the Disciples, on the 7th Sunday after Easter. Even in these somewhat secular times, I feel something is being lost when the reason for the holiday is not actively remembered, and celebrated. It becomes just another day off.
However, the sun aspect of Whitsun was very much in evidence with day after day of glorious sunshine (the gardens and reservoirs need the rain but it was wonderful for the children to have a sunshine break at half term) which also led to gloriously clear evenings. For the first time for years, I was able to make daily observations of the Moon, noting its changing position and make sketches of its phase. I was then able to see the pattern of its orbit and actually prove that from that first very thin crescent to First Quarter, it does make an angle of 90 degrees.
The month was rounded off nicely with a meal in Topsham followed by enjoying watching Morris dancers and a tap dancing display, with a nearly full Moon overhead. A real summer’s evening on the last day of the month.
Karen Hedges
May 2023
Karen Hedges 