May Flower 2

May Flower 2

We are into Pentecost-tide and I would also like to wish you the Glories of May. But thereby hangs an ongoing discussion. When I wrote about, “Not casting a cloot until May is oot”, it was pointed out that it does not refer to the Calendar Month of May but to the MAY FLOWER.. When May Flower has blossomed we can put off our winter garments. Being curious to which flower is the May Flower I was happy to be

informed that it was the LILY OF THE VALLEY. Significantly it has not yet appeared.

But a friend of the first elderly lady has since

stated that the May Flower is the HAWTHORN Flower.

(Natural History Source names the Lily of the Valley and gives the Alternative as Hawthorn - so they were both right).

The Hawthorn is the MAY TREE. The first SPRIG to flower is presented to a loved one and it becomes part of MAY DAY celebrations.

I therefore scoured our Hawthorn hedgerows but there is NOT YET any sign of the flower in bloom. So we have keep our SHIRT on yet a while, and keep watch. This, 13 May is extremely late for the appearance of the Lily of the Valley or the flower of the Hawthorn.

Another name for the little white flowers is “MARY’s Tears”. When Mary wept at the Passion of her Son her tears became the May Flower.

I am told that there is a Website ‘the Garden of Mary’ giving traditions associating particular flowers with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today, 13^th May, being the commemoration day of Our Lady of Fatima, the Holm Oak figures as the tree of the Appartions.

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