May 1st

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow,
don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.

From Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven"

We don't celebrate May Day here in Oz! Some us "Lefties" might want to but it's just not quite the same as for our northern hemisphere cousins. I'm sure there's a modicum of Traditional Trade Unionists who would view today as a kind of "Too-important-to-go-to-work" day but I've yet to meet any in actual person!

As for the whole "Beltane" thing?

Well! For a start - It's not Spring here right now. We are entering the full throws of Autumn where the weather is colder, the wind bitier and the leaves on the trees are turning various shades of yellow.

Secondly, not many Australians are into the whole May Pole thing! They look like candycanes which we tend to only have around at Christmas time. The pole didn't come with our forebears and as far as I know, the Aboriginal peoples, who were here first, were not into dancing around red and white striped poles either!

Third: The Sydney Gay Mardi Gras aside - I don't imagine many of our self-contained aussie blokes would want to be seen dead in a Morris Dance outfit!

So May 1st is a quiet, unassuming work day here. But that's okay!

WE have the Melbourne Cup instead! ;)

Mitch