The first day of May, the calends of May, marked in many parts of Italy and Europe the entry into the season of full bloom. No longer the uncertain spring of March, but nature bursting into flowers and leaves, green fields, long days. Calendimaggio was the festival that celebrated this passage with songs, flowering branches, trees planted in village squares and processions of young people. It is one of the most joyful seasonal festivals of the traditional calendar, and it preserves a very precise symbolism.
The calends: why the first of the month
In the Roman calendar the kalendae were the first day of each month, the day on which the days of that month were proclaimed. The word "calendar" itself derives from this term. Calendimaggio thus literally means "the first of May", but the expression came to mean the whole festival.
May itself was traditionally associated with Maia, a figure linked to growth and to the fertility of the earth. The name of the month already carries the idea of ripening.
Planting the May
The most characteristic custom is the maypole, or May tree. During the night or at dawn on the first of May the village youths went into the woods, chose a tall, straight tree, cut it down and carried it to the village square. There it was planted and decorated with ribbons, flowers, fruit or small gifts. In many parts of Italy people spoke of "planting the May".
In other variants a flowering branch was brought to the house of the girl one loved, as a declaration or a tribute. The branch thus became a public message, a way of saying without words what could not yet be said openly.
Symbolically the May tree is very dense:
- it is a vertical axis joining earth and sky at the centre of the community;
- it brings into the square the strength of the woods, that is, of untamed nature;
- the ribbons surrounding it, which in many European traditions are woven together in a dance, represent the bond between members of the community;
- its verticality and vitality make it an explicit symbol of fertility.
Cantar maggio: the spring begging song
In many areas of the Apennines, especially between Tuscany and Emilia, the tradition of cantar maggio, "singing the May", is still alive. Groups of singers go from house to house on the nights between late April and early May, singing verses that announce the arrival of the fine season and wish the family prosperity. In return they receive eggs, wine, sweets or other gifts.
This form of begging ritual has an ancient meaning: whoever brings spring also brings abundance, and the community that welcomes the song symbolically secures its own share of fertility. The gift is not a payment but a ritual exchange.
The same area also has the maggio drammatico, a form of folk theatre in verse, sung outdoors, that stages chivalric, religious or epic stories.
Poliziano and the Florentine Calendimaggio
In fifteenth-century Florence Calendimaggio was an important festival of city life, with songs, dances and processions. To that milieu belongs Angelo Poliziano's famous ballad that opens with the line "Ben venga maggio e 'l gonfalon selvaggio", "Welcome May and the wild banner". The "wild banner" is precisely the flowering branch carried in procession, the flag of nature entering the city.
Calendimaggio still lives on today in various Italian towns, including Assisi, in the form of re-enactments with music, costumes and contests between districts.
The inner meaning of full bloom
If the spring equinox is the threshold of beginning, Calendimaggio is the threshold of fullness. Forces that were latent become visible. It is the moment when nature no longer asks to be waited for, but to be celebrated.
In symbolic work this phase represents the courage to show oneself: to declare a feeling, to make a project public, to bring into the square of one's life what has grown in secret.
A small May rite
- At dawn on the first of May go outdoors and observe for a few minutes a tree in full blossom or leaf.
- Collect a fallen branch or a wild flower, respecting plants and protected places.
- Tie a ribbon to the branch for each of the things you wish to bring into flower this year.
- Place it on the door or near the entrance of your home, as the young people did outside the houses of those they loved.
In short
- Calendimaggio, the first of May, celebrated entry into the season of full bloom.
- The May tree carried into the square is an axis joining community, nature and sky.
- The Apennine cantar maggio is a begging ritual that exchanges song for abundance.
- Poliziano's line "Ben venga maggio" bears witness to the festival in fifteenth-century Florence.
- Symbolically, May is the time when what grew in secret shows itself.
