{"id":923,"date":"2010-05-01T07:57:03","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/?p=923"},"modified":"2023-04-17T16:12:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T00:12:27","slug":"may-day-mayday-maider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;Aider!"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=1&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;font=\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px\"><\/iframe><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fheathervale.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F05%2F01%2Fmay-day-mayday-maider%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><p>Today is &#8220;May Day&#8221;&#8230; May 1st.<\/p>\n<p>And every time I think of that, the distress call uttered by pilots and boat captains in trouble pops into my mind.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mayday, mayday, mayday!&#8221; I hear them calling.<\/p>\n<p>So I started wondering, what it is about May 1st that&#8217;s connected somehow with danger?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Turns out&#8230; absolutely nothing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>May Day, the holiday, has been around for thousands of years. For the Druids of the British Isles, it was the second-most important day of the year, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theholidayspot.com\/mayday\/history.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TheHolidaySpot.com<\/a>. It marked the middle of the year, and was celebrated with cleansing fires &#8212; a symbol of the spring sun.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Couples would walk through the smoke for good luck&#8230; nothing distressful about that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Then the Romans came, and they used early May to celebrate Flora, the goddess of flowers, through feasting.<\/p>\n<p>By the Middle Ages, the day had transformed into a festival for children, complete with the maypole: an elaborate ribbon-strewn pole constructed by each village, all attempting to have the highest one (just like the &#8220;tallest building in the world&#8221; race that continues today).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Kids would take hold of the ribbons and dance merrily around the maypole, weaving them into one complete unit. Again, no distress there!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In contrast to all this celebration, the distress call (which is always uttered three times for clarity: &#8220;Mayday, mayday, mayday!&#8221;) has nothing to do with May Day.<\/p>\n<p>It comes from the French &#8220;<strong>m&#8217;aider<\/strong>,&#8221; which, as any Canadian who has been through the school system can tell you, means simply &#8220;<strong>help me!<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now why the heck didn&#8217;t I figure that one out on my own?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Heather Vale Goss\" src=\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"35\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is &#8220;May Day&#8221;&#8230; May 1st. And every time I think of that, the distress call uttered by pilots and boat captains in trouble pops into my mind. &#8220;Mayday, mayday, mayday!&#8221; I hear them calling. So I started wondering, what it is about May 1st that&#8217;s connected somehow with danger? Turns out&#8230; absolutely nothing. May [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[512,515,510,511,513,514],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrations","tag-druids","tag-holidays","tag-may-day","tag-mayday","tag-romans","tag-tradition"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>May Day, Mayday, M&#039;Aider! - Heather Vale Unwrapped<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May Day, Mayday, M&#039;Aider! - Heather Vale Unwrapped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today is &#8220;May Day&#8221;&#8230; May 1st. And every time I think of that, the distress call uttered by pilots and boat captains in trouble pops into my mind. &#8220;Mayday, mayday, mayday!&#8221; I hear them calling. So I started wondering, what it is about May 1st that&#8217;s connected somehow with danger? Turns out&#8230; absolutely nothing. May [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heather Vale Unwrapped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-01T15:57:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-18T00:12:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Heather Vale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Heather Vale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Heather Vale\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/65bad31be256e8d986f1b8f382d5dba5\"},\"headline\":\"May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;Aider!\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-01T15:57:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-18T00:12:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\"},\"wordCount\":277,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"druids\",\"holidays\",\"may day\",\"mayday\",\"romans\",\"tradition\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Celebrations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\",\"name\":\"May Day, Mayday, M'Aider! - Heather Vale Unwrapped\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-01T15:57:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-18T00:12:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/65bad31be256e8d986f1b8f382d5dba5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/heathervale.com\/images\/sigHVG_2.1_blue.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/may-day-mayday-maider\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;Aider!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Heather Vale Unwrapped\",\"description\":\"Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/65bad31be256e8d986f1b8f382d5dba5\",\"name\":\"Heather Vale\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heathervale.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b710ffec37bde14f46d4571fad58aa?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b710ffec37bde14f46d4571fad58aa?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Heather Vale\"},\"description\":\"Heather Vale is a seasoned journalist, interviewer and writer who has worked in all media: TV, radio, print and online. 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