{"id":12386,"date":"2007-05-01T20:53:21","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T20:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marialiberati.com\/blog2\/2007\/05\/01\/may-day-and-i-am-here-in-greece\/"},"modified":"2007-05-01T20:53:21","modified_gmt":"2007-05-01T20:53:21","slug":"may-day-and-i-am-here-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2007\/05\/01\/may-day-and-i-am-here-in-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day and I am here in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt\"><span lang=EN-US><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"WIDTH: 192px; HEIGHT: 256px\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alice.typepad.com\/cottage_blessings\/images\/dsc04370_1.jpg?resize=249%2C329\" width=\"249\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ads.adgenta.com\/ads\/ads.dll\/click?client=primamedia1&#038;GUID=May+Day+and+I+am+here+in+Greec+%2805%2F01%2F07+22%3A47%3A47%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN: 4px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none\" height=75 alt=\"Ads by AdGenta.com\" isMap src=\"http:\/\/ads.adgenta.com\/ads\/ads.dll\/view?client=primamedia1&amp;GUID=May+Day+and+I+am+here+in+Greec+%2805%2F01%2F07+22%3A47%3A47%29&amp;WIDTH=300&amp;HEIGHT=75&amp;keywords=flowers%20Greece\" width=300 border=0><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ads.adgenta.com\/ads\/ads.dll\/click?client=primamedia1&#038;GUID=May+Day+and+I+am+here+in+Greec+%2805%2F01%2F07+22%3A48%3A36%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN: 4px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none\" height=75 alt=\"Ads by AdGenta.com\" isMap src=\"http:\/\/ads.adgenta.com\/ads\/ads.dll\/view?client=primamedia1&amp;GUID=May+Day+and+I+am+here+in+Greec+%2805%2F01%2F07+22%3A48%3A36%29&amp;WIDTH=300&amp;HEIGHT=75&amp;keywords=Flowers\" width=300 border=0><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt\"><span lang=EN-US><font size=3>Today is May Day, the first of May. My grandmother as a young girl used to go picking new spring flowers with her sisters. They would then leave these bundled bouquets anonymously on neighbors&#162; doors. It is a spring tradition I always wished was continued widely in the States, but unfortunately I haven&#162;t really seen practiced. <span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt\"><font size=3><span lang=EN-US>But here in <\/span><span lang=EN-US><span id=lw_1178052322_0 style=\"CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; HEIGHT: 1em\">Greece<\/span><\/span><span lang=EN-US> the holiday is still a celebration of flowers and springtime. May Day is also <span id=lw_1178052322_1 style=\"CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; HEIGHT: 1em\">Labor Day<\/span> in <\/span><span lang=EN-US><span id=lw_1178052322_2 style=\"CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; HEIGHT: 1em\">Greece<\/span><\/span><span lang=EN-US>, and most of <\/span><span lang=EN-US><span id=lw_1178052322_3 style=\"CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; HEIGHT: 1em\">Europe<\/span><\/span><span lang=EN-US> for that matter. Since it is a national holiday the whole country is off of work and the day is spent in leisurely celebration. Traditionally families will take a picnic to the countryside where children spend the afternoon picking wild flowers and making wreaths of them that will then be hung on the door. The wreaths stay up till St. John&#162;s Eve in June, when they are burned in mid-summer bonfires. I&#162;ve heard that on some islands taxi drivers will even hang wreaths on the front of their taxis. Also in honor of the holiday, small parades are held in <\/span><span lang=EN-US><span id=lw_1178052322_4 style=\"CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; HEIGHT: 1em\">Athens<\/span><\/span><span lang=EN-US> and around the country. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt\"><span lang=EN-US><font size=3>The family I am visiting here traditionally ushers spring in on May Day with the season&#162;s first dip into the sea. Although the sun is out and the days are warm, you&#162;d have to be a bit adventurous for the chill of the sea. I may not be swimming, but I will be weaving a wreath from the bright yellow wild flowers down the road, and I might slip some poppies and gardenias in from the garden. I couldn&#8217;t think of a better place to spend this holiday filled with the beauty of picnics, flowers, kites, and the blue sea. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<div><em>If&nbsp; you are looking for a perfect gift for Mother&#8217;s Day- <strong>The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by<\/strong> <strong>celebrity chef-Maria Liberati<\/strong> makes a wonderful gift. Portions of proceeds go to <strong>Gilda&#8217;s Club&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; http:\/\/www.gildasclubnyc.org<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; If you order now at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com\"><em>https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com<\/em><\/a><em> you will receive free shipping and handling and $5 off regular retail price.<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=right><font FACE=\"VERDANA\" COLOR=\"#000080\" size=1><i>Powered By <a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.qumana.com\" TARGET=\"_blank\">Qumana<\/a><\/i><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is May Day, the first of May. My grandmother as a young girl used to go picking new spring flowers with her sisters. They would then leave these bundled&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}