May Day! May Day! May Day!

By Allan Metcalf. Today isn’t just any day. It’s May Day, the first of May.
Geoffrey Chaucer knew it was special. In “The Legend of Good Women,” he wrote that he tossed his book aside when May came:

On bokes for to rede I me delyte . . .
Save, certeynly, whan that the month of May
Is comen, and that I here the foules synge,
And that the floures gynnen for to sprynge,
Farewel my bok, and my devocioun!

And on the first day of May, from before Chaucer’s time to our own, northern countries have celebrated the end of cold weather and return of spring with flowers, maypoles, dancing and other rites of May.
Shakespeare knew it was special too. More...