MAY CROSS.
The rural custom of electing a May Queen among the country belles is, I understand, still practised in some parts of Spain. The name of Maia, given to the handsomest lass of the village, who, decorated with garlands of flowers, leads the dances in which the young people spend the day, shews how little that ceremony has varied since the time of the Romans. The villagers, in other provinces, declare their love by planting, during the preceding night, a large bough or a sapling, decked with flowers, before the doors of their sweethearts.
As most of our ancient church festivals were contrived as substitutes for the Pagan rites, which the Christian priesthood could not otherwise eradicate, we still have some remnants of the sanctified May-pole in the little crosses, which the children ornament with flowers, and place upon tables, holding as many lighted tapers as, from the contributions of their friends, they can afford to buy.
I have heard that the children at Cambridge dress up a figure called the May-lady, and setting it upon a table, beg money of the passengers. The difference between this and the analogous Spanish custom arose, in all probability, from the respective prevalence in either country of the May-pole, or the Maia. A figure of the Virgin, which the Reformation has reduced to a nameless as well as shapeless puppet, took place of the latter, while the cross was employed to banish the former. I am inclined to believe that the illuminated grottos of oyster-shells, for which the London children beg about the streets, are the representatives of some Catholic emblem, which had its day as a substitute for a more classical idol. I was struck in London with the similarity of the plea which the children of both countries urge in order to obtain a halfpenny. The “it is but once a year, sir!” often reminded me of the
La Cruz de Mayo
que no come ni bebe
en todo el año.
The Cross of May
Remember pray,
Which fasts a year and feasts a day.