At 08:57 23/03/98 GMT0BST, you wrote:
>Anselm Cramer says May is 'traditionally associated with Marian
>devotions'. I hadn't come across this - any idea of its origins? We
>do our annual pilgrimage to Penrhys in May but that has more to do
>with practicalities than any devotional tradition.
>
>Maddy
>
>May is universally observed as 'Mary's month' in Catholic tradition,
as witness e.g. the hymn,
Bring flowers of the rarest,
bring blossoms the fairest
from garland and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale.
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May . . .
Hence the old traditions of the May Queen, dancing round the maypole, etc.
How far the tradition goes back, I don't know.
Oriens.
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