May Day is said to be a fortuitous time to leave gifts and offerings for the fae. To celebrate we always make a point of building some fairy houses and leaving them some spring flowers and baubles.
My kids will build fairy houses independently for hours… In fact, maybe I should be leaving a gift for the fairies! They construct ever growing fairy villages and encampments with different types of buildings, an armory (yes those are fairy swords..) and hidden storage bunkers. There are markets and food storage- what more could a fairy need? The kids spend the day outside being creative and getting fresh air and I don’t need to worry about the fae poisoning my cattle… traditionally many May Day/Beltane rituals were designed to ward off or appease the fairies and prevent them from stealing or damaging dairy products. (Although I don’t have any cattle… maybe my coconut milk?) It’s a great spring activity with tons of engineering and problem solving benefits which mostly makes up for the occasional garden destruction.
Most of the plants that are said to be appealing to fairies are also great pollinator plants– so planting native perennials is another great way to celebrate May Day. In fact in our house we associate fairies with butterflies quite directly so a pollinator study would be perfect. Another fun way to celebrate May Day is by making fairy cakes- just don’t forget to leave the fairies some!
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