What Is May Day In The Catholic Church

  When I was a young child growing up in the Catholic Church I always remember May Day. No we did not dance around a May pole and worship the Spring Festival. No we would show our devotion the the Blessed Virgin Mary The Mother Of God. No we did not worship Mary as some will say. What we do is honor Mary, because she is the mother of God in the flesh. She is the Mother of Jesus who is God in the flesh. I believe that right there gives her a very special place.
  So you may be asking how did we celebrate may day. Well what we did was all gather together around the statue of Mary that was outside the church and school. There would be many beautiful flowers placed around the statue. I remember that the priest would give some kind of a speech ans lead us in prayers. I remember the flowers as mostly being tulips with some very beautiful colors. No we did not pray to the statue either. The statue is only a reminder of who Mary is. At times we may pray and ask Mary to pray for us.
  This information is from Wikipedia on the origin of May day devotion to Mary "

Origins[edit]

A number of traditions link the month of May to Mary. Alfonso X, king of Castile wrote in his "Cantigas de Santa Maria" about the special honoring of Mary during specific dates in May. Eventually, the entire month was filled with special observances and devotions to Mary.

The origin of the conventional May devotion is still relatively unknown. Herbert Thurston identifies the seventeenth century as the earliest instance of the adoption of the custom of consecrating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin by special observances.^[1] It is certain that this form of Marian devotion began in Italy. Around 1739, witnesses speak of a particular form of Marian devotion in May in Grezzano near Verona. In 1747 the Archbishop of Genoa recommended the May devotion as a devotion for the home.^[2] Specific prayers for them were promulgated in Rome in 1838.^[3]

According to Frederick Holweck, the May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite.^[4] In Rome by 1813, May devotions were held in as many as twenty churches. From Italy, May devotions soon spread to France. In Belgium, the May devotions, at least as a private devotion, were already known by 1803. The tradition of honoring Mary in a month-long May devotion spread eventually around the Roman Catholic world in the 19th century together with a month-long devotion to Jesus in June and the Rosary in October. "

  If you are interested in more information check out the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_devotions_to_the_Blessed_Virgin_Mary . If you would like more information on devotion to Mary check out this link http://www.catholic.org/prayers/merton.php .

  Thank You For reading and God Bless.