{"id":7648,"date":"2012-05-01T00:48:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T05:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=7648"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:52:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:52:42","slug":"what-is-may-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/05\/what-is-may-day\/","title":{"rendered":"What is May Day?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/pole-dancing.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7649 alignleft\" title=\"pole dancing\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/pole-dancing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>May Day is best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole and crowning of the <a title=\"Queen of the May\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Queen_of_the_May\">Queen of the May<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A tall wooden pole is garlanded with flowers and greenery and often hung with ribbons that are woven into complex patterns by dancers in a ceremonial folk dance. The custom probably originated from ancient fertility rites that involved dancing around a living tree in the springtime. In many European countries, notably England, the pole is set up on May 1.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-<a title=\"Christian\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christian\">Christian<\/a> <a title=\"Europe\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Europe\">European<\/a> <a title=\"Paganism\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paganism\">pagan<\/a> cultures. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of &#8220;May baskets,&#8221; small baskets of sweets and\/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors\u2019 doorsteps.<\/p>\n<p>May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the <a title=\"Americas\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Americas\">American<\/a> continent. In some parts of the <a title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\">United States<\/a>, May Baskets are made. These are small baskets are usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone&#8217;s doorstep. The giver would ring the bell and run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the fleeing giver. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged.<\/p>\n<p>May 1 is also recognized in the U.S. as <a title=\"Law Day\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Law_Day\">Law Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May Day is best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. A tall wooden pole is garlanded with flowers and greenery&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}