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Good morning Technique Lovers! Happy MAY! Today's challenge is a little different. Rather than highlighting one technique, I am highlighting a perhaps unknown or forgotten tradition: May Baskets! I use the term "baskets" very loosely, as you will be able to choose exactly what that means. But first, let's look at the tradition and history for a moment.
Handing out May Day baskets is a charming and gentle activity for children and adults. It's a tradition that Louisa May Alcott wrote of in "Jack and Jill" (Chapter 1: "The job now in hand was May baskets, for it was the custom of the children to hang them on the doors of their friends the night before May-day; and the girls had agreed to supply baskets if the boys would hunt for flowers, much the harder task of the two. Jill had more leisure as well as taste and skill than the other girls, so she amused herself with making a goodly store of pretty baskets of all shapes, sizes, and colors, quite confident that they would be filled, though not a flower had shown its head except a few hardy dandelions, and here and there a small cluster of saxifrage." (a type of herb called Greater Burnet).
I like the May basket tradition for a number of reasons:
Giving is anonymous. Reciprocity is not expected. You leave the basket on the doorknob or doorstep, ring the doorbell and run.
Children give to grownups, instead of the other way around. On almost every other holiday, the child receives gifts; they don't get to experience the true joy of unselfish giving. My kids loved giving the baskets to the neighbors as much as they enjoy getting candy from them on Halloween. The big part of the excitement has been trying to sneak around undetected. Now that my kids are grown, I still love sneaking around
It doesn't take much to brighten someone's day. One year, we (okay, I) forgot to get anything for May Day but the neighbors were just as happy with our random assortment of goodies from throughout our house, like leftover sparklers from the Fourth of July, an extra packet of colorful paper napkins, lilacs from our back yard, packs of gum, etc.
May baskets signal spring in 2017 just as much as they did in 1812.
It's up to you what kind of "basket" you would like to make. My sample uses recycled materials (a pineapple can), but there are oodles of examples in our Tutorials Section that would work beautifully. Here are a few ideas to get you started (and some we have done before, which fits perfectly with our "Everything Old is New Again" on the first Monday of the month!): Two Pocket Treat Holder Crimped Envelope Pocket Card Woven Basket Watering Can Tiny Treat Basket Faceted Basket Slatted Basket
These are of course, just ideas to get you started! OR -- You can use something recycled, as I did in my sample.
In any case, tell us your method in the description, and upload to the appropriate gallery if you are not using SU! stamps.
What a delightful experience you have brought to us today! I never knew of this, but it is totally sweet and worth reviving, in whatever way. Thanks for bringing this to us!
__________________ Joyce Ann - Layouts completed: 2022/ 218; 2023/ 71. Layouts for 2024: Jan 3=72, Feb 3=75
I remember doing this as a child in school. We made our paper baskets and filled them with dandelions from the playground, and flowers our teacher had brought in. The children in that little neighborhood school mostly walked to school - I remember carrying the basket home and hanging it on a neighbor lady's door, ringing the bell, and dashing off. Thanks for the lovely memory, Judy!
__________________ Claudia Splitcoast Fan Club Member
TLC636 ~ May Baskets ~ {5/1/17}
