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Here is the next entry out of Stories of Our Holidays (1913) by Isabel M. Horsford. It is a reader filled with — you guessed it — stories of our holidays!
This month is pretty full on the calendar for holidays! We will be celebrating three this time. May 1st (May Day) May 18th (Peace Day) and May 26th (Decoration Day). We will start in order, the first being May Day.
May Day’s reading words are
dainty colored hospital village group
May Day is celebrated on the first day in May every year.
May Day
Have you ever heard of May Day? It comes on the first day of the month.
In England May Day has been a holiday for a long, long time.
Suppose you were going to have a May Day, what would you do? Let me tell you what I should like to do.
May is the month when the buds on the trees have become tiny green leaves. The seeds that were asleep in the dark ground are just waking up. The first spring flowers are getting ready to blossom as the warm sun shines upon them.
Early in the morning we will go to the woods and meadows to look for wild flowers. I wonder who will find the first violets. Perhaps some one will find some of the beautiful Mayflowers.
If Jack Frost stayed too long and the spring is late, we may not find many flowers. Still the spring flowers are brave, and they will blossom in spite of cold winds. So I am sure that we shall not come home with empty baskets.
Now we will fill our May baskets. Here they are, all made of dainty colored paper. Fill them par way with candy, then put the flowers on top.
Would you not like to send this pink basket to a little girl who is sick in the hospital?
I know a little lame boy who cannot go to the woods to gather flowers. Let us send him this green and white one. It will make him very happy.
In England the boys and girls always have a dance on the village green. We should call the green a park, or playground.
The tall Maypole is set up in the middle of the green. Tied to the top of the pole are long, bright-colored ribbons. Each dancer holds in his hand the end of a ribbon. As the children skip round and round, and in and out, the ribbons twist around the pole. It is a pretty sight, and one that we should all like to see.
In New York on some pleasant day in May the school children march to one of the parks. Each group has a Maypole. They dance and sing and play games around their Maypole.
The children think that this is one of the happiest days in the whole years. I think I should think so, too, if I were a little boy or girl and went to school in New York.
*****
The next, Peace Day, was to be celebrated on May 18th. Ever since 1899, there were apparently several attempts and many efforts to make May 18th a national Peace Day, though it never was set. It was not until 1981 when an International Day of Peace was finally set, though it was set for September 21st. We also call it World Peace Day. I love that there were petitions and efforts from those early days to make it May 18th, and that this book is trying to teach schoolchildren the meaning. I do not find anything wrong with celebrating this twice in a year, so we are going to call May 18th Peace Day, as they so wanted to do. Here is the story of these first attempts. We need this now more than ever. The picture of the peace flag that they reference here is not in the book. I’ll post it anyway.
Peace Day’s reading words are
Russia quarrel statue nations umpire generous invitation palace border
Peace Day
I
Some years ago the ruler of Russia sent a letter to all the different nations. This letter was an invitation.
It said, “Nations often have quarrels with each other. They think that the only way to settle the quarrel is to have a war.
“Now we all know that there is a better way.
“So let each nation choose three or four of its best men to meet together, and let us see if they cannot find this better way.”
This letter was a great surprise to the different nations. However, it was a glad surprise. They were all glad to choose men to go to this meeting.
The Queen of Holland asked these men to come to her country. She invited them to hold their meeting in a beautiful house, called “The House in the Woods.”
On the eighteenth of May, 1899, one hundred men from all over the world met in this beautiful place. They were going to make plans to keep nations from fighting with each other. They were going to make plans to keep peace through all the world.
Was not that a great thing to plan for? Is not “Peace Day” a good name for the eighteenth of May?
Sometimes at a baseball game one team thinks that the other team does not play quite fair. We should think them very foolish if they began to fight about it. So they have a man, called the umpire, to settle all questions.
Now, it is just as foolish for nations to fight when they have a quarrel with each other, as it is for those baseball teams. So at this meeting in Holland, it was planned that a certain number of men from the different nations should be the umpires.
Two nations who have a quarrel may go to the umpires and say, “Let us tell you about our quarrel. Then you may tell us the right way to settle it.”
Some of the best and wisest men in the world helped to make this plan. They know that it is not yet perfect. But it is a good beginning.
A rich man gave a large sum of money to build a meeting place for these umpires. With this money Holland has built the Palace of Peace.
Some day when you go to Holland, you will want to see this building. You will want to see the presents that the different nations have given to make it beautiful. The United States has given a statue for the first landing on the staircase.
II
Boy and girls, too, can help to bring the day when all nations shall live in peace.
Children, like nations, often quarrel, but if you begin now to be generous and polite to your playmates, you will be doing just what the nations are trying to do.
Have you ever seen the “Peace Flag”?
For our country, it is our own flag with a border of white, and the words “Peace for all nations,” across the top. Each country has its own flag in the middle, with the same kind of border and the same words.
Suppose the little boys and girls in all the different nations are learning now the lessons of kindness and helpfulness that this flag stands for. Suppose we learn that the “Peace Flag” means kindness to people of all nations. Surely the day of peace will be much nearer when you boys and girls have grown to be men and women.
*****
Last but not least we will talk about May 26th, which is Decoration Day, also known as Memorial Day.
Decoration Day’s reading words are
civil Memorial because forget Decoration women comrades graves indeed
Decoration Day
Once there was a great war in our country. We call it the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln was president then.
The soldiers of the North fought the soldiers of teh South.
The soldiers of the North were called the “Boys in Blue.” The soldiers of the South were called the “Boys in Gray.”
After a long time the war was over.
Some of the soldiers were killed.
The soldiers who were not killed did not want to forget their comrades.
So we have a day every year when we remember our soldiers. We call that day Memorial Day. Sometimes we call it Decoration Day.
The friends of the dead soldiers put flowers on their graves.
We like to remember the soldiers because they loved their country.
Can boys and girls do anything for their country? Yes, indeed, they can.
They must always speak the truth. They must always play fair.
Then they will grow to be the right kind of men and women.
