Spring things

Spring is moving into summer, and May festivals will soon make way for summer carnivals. Why not celebrate the transition of seasons with the children in your care, by making some home crafts that can be adapted for children of different ages.

The month of May is traditionally known for May Day parades, Morris dancing and maypole dancing - old customs you may still see being enacted today. Maypole dancing was usually done by women. They would stand in a circle around the maypole - often made from a tree trunk, decorated with new blossoms - and each would hold one of the ribbons that were fastened to the top. They would dance around the pole in a skipping step, with some going in one direction and some going the opposite way round, so as to twist the ribbons. They continued until the ribbons were wrapped tightly around the pole and then dance in the other direction again to unravel them. This shortening and lengthening of the ribbons was said to remind people of the way the daylight hours were shorter in winter and longer in summer (and so the dance was also sometimes done on Midsummer's Day in June).