https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/roan-rose/id1023558994?mt=11
A few days early, but here' we are on our way to May Day again!
The older you get, the faster Time Flies!
Long ago, my mother told me about the tradition of gathering flowers to bring indoors as a way to give thanks for the return of spring. Living in upstate NY at the time, spring -- and therefore flowers -- could be a bit iffy. I remember shivering in Sunday school in a summer dress when the weather turned feral and dropped a farewell load of snow on us once more, killing off the apple blossoms in our orchard with a horrible finality.
During years when the weather cooperated and hung onto spring, it was fun to go out early before anyone else was up and gather daffodils, lilacs and apple blossom to make a bouquet. I remember having this somewhat conflated with Mother's Day, so I usually put the bouquet on the kitchen table with a handmade card.
As a Constant Reader, I soon learned that this tradition went far back into the mists of European history, and that Ostara was the spring goddess from whose name Easter was derived, along with her bird's eggs and rabbits. In the UK, of course, these are, more properly, the more graceful hare, a creature who sometimes nests in grass and leaves behind handy, ready made hollows which are later occupied by birds such as whippoorwills who raise their young on the ground.
It was fun, some twenty years back, to read "American Gods," and a little later, to see the series created from the book. This included a campy episode that included Ostara, these days manifesting as a southern belle, who piggy-backs her ancient earth resurrection onto the current fame of our much later Christian Jesus, who also resurrects around this time. Through the wonders of CG, her rabbits are everywhere, little spies, whispering secrets into her ears. My favorite part came when Ostara is provoked to anger, causing her to act out in the way our ancestors most feared, and blacken her lush surroundings with a shock and awe killing frost.
Unsurprisingly, She isn't too happy with us this year--and why, when you look around at the weather data, should she be? Locally, we had several days of 70-80 degrees culminating in two that hit 90, which led to fruit trees blossoming, and my Chinese Chestnut to sprout a first flush of leaves.
After we'd all gotten our shorts and tees out, Ostara did an about face. On two clear nights, she lobbed rockets loaded with frigid air, sending us into the low 20's, which froze everything that had just bloomed, including my tulips, solid.
I foresee a poor apple harvest this year. I will continue to pray that my Chinese Chestnut can manage to set new leaves, because the original ones have withered.
The book covers I've posted, all contain chapters whose events turn on May Eve and May Day, celebrations which came down the long years to the characters in these historical novels, and which have, in turn, been a source of pleasure to me.
Happy Easter, Happy Spring, and Happy May Day--and St. Walpurgis Night too--if that's more your thing.
