Happy May Day! The schools are closed, the stores are closed, there will be parades and fireworks. It is a fun time to be alive. One of the things I love about May Day is the abundance of flowers that you see in the country. Spring is a special time of year.
You have seen this picture of the poppies before but as I drive back and forth to Corato to take the girls to school the olive orchards and road sides are covered in red. The poppies are everywhere. I love seeing them.
This was a field beside an old wall in Rome. It had three types of flowers that looked beautiful and soft against the old wall.
Here are the various colors of my lemon/lime tree.
And here is a lone flower from our beach hike. What a lovely surprise to stumble upon a dab of beauty.
Beginning in the third century B.C. in Rome, the festival Floralia, for the goddess Flora, was held in the days around May Day, April 28th to May 3rd. Flora was a goddess of flowers and fertility, and the festival was held to please her so that she protected flowers and other blossoming plants. There was a circus and theater performances, there were prostitutes and naked dancers, and a sacrifice to the goddess. Deer and goats were let loose to symbolize fertility, and beans and lupines were scattered for the same reason. Romans usually wore white tunics, but during Floralia, they got to wear bright colors. Although Floralia wasn't instituted until the third century B.C., it evolved from an ancient celebration of spring and fertility traditionally held at that time.
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