May Day 1
by rebecca ~ May 6th, 2007. Filed under: Do the right thing.
“Trying to own water makes no more sense than trying to own love –it is the flow that matters.”
-Sarah Ruth Vangelden,
Yes! Magazine (Winter 2004)
On May Day my family all packed up and headed to see the big May Day celebration at Powderhorn park. About 30,000 people celebrate in the park every year—and I admit I was hesitant to go—since I despise crowds, but my friends assured me this was no typical crowd—people at this event are very calm, happy, and free-spirited. They were right—I didn’t feel claustrophobic at all and the crowd was relaxed and friendly–no pushing or cranky parents allowed.
The below excerpt is taken from the In The Heart of The Beast Puppet Theatre Website, the organization responsible for organizing this very cool May Day events each year at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis. It is written by my friend Masa, who also happened to get ordained as a minister just so he could act as the official for my and my husband’s marriage ceremony. One day I want to get the notes he used at the wedding—very cool thoughts on a new moon, etc.
Masa wrote:
“I Was Born in Japan, near Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The Park sits in the heart of the city of Hiroshima, a delta through which six rivers run to the sea. As a kid, the park was an ideal playground, with large grassy expanses, full of pigeons to chase. But at night, when I looked at the dark river, I imagined it filled with floating bodies.
As you might know, Hiroshima was the site of the very first atomic bomb attack, on August 6, 1945. The Park marks the epicenter of the explosion. Two rivers border either side.
The bomb turned the city into an inferno. The people’s bodies were on fire. They ran desperately to the rivers, crying, “Give me water, GIVE ME WATER.”
Every year since, precisely at 8.15 a.m. each August 6, the
whole city halts for one minute. All you hear is cicadas
singing, birds chirping and bells tolling to appease the
spirits of the dead.
In the evening ceremony, people float paper lanterns down the Motoyasu River to guide the spirits of the dead back to the other world. Sometimes, a lantern gets stuck near the riverbank, as if the spirit is trying to cling to this world as long as it can.
Participants write messages on the lanterns, such as:
“Mother, I am now a grandmother”
“I will never fight in war”
“Please do not produce any more nuclear weapons”
The colored lanterns drifting serenely through the Park towards the sea is, to me, an indescribably poignant, beautiful sight — and a powerful testament to the voices of people for peace.”
-Masanari Kawahara, Mayday Artist
HAPPY MAY DAY, EVERYONE!