First of May

Today is May 1.  How time flies!  We've used four months of 2014 already.  How is it so fast for you?  Everything alright?  You're still in the doldrums?  Or you're slowly getting there?  I'm a bit ambivalent about this but I would like to believe that I'm slowly getting there, not quite there yet but taking one step at a time.

This day is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures, specially in the Northern Hemisphere.  It also coincides with the celebration of International Workers Day.  I can recall back home in the Philippines, when this day was the official start of a month-long celebration of feasts in honour of patron saints.  This was also the month when young girls would come up to the alter of the church and also approach the pedestal of the Blessed Mother Mary, to lay flowers at her feet.  At the end of the month was the grand celebration of Flores de Mayo (the Flowers of May).

For me, I was a young lad then singing along to the song by the Bee Gees First of May (1969) made more memorable when it became one of the songs in the movie Melody Fair (1971).  That's how I always remember May 1 because it resonated with my "puppy love."  Ah, to be young and free, and hopelessly in love.  But that is another story.