A GARLAND

Flora Thompson wrote a book called Lark Rise to Candleford, about rural life in the late 19th century. She describes how, in April, "some of the bigger boys would have walked six or eight miles to a distant wood where primroses grew." These, along with violets, cowslips and wallflowers, would be used to make a May garland. The garland consisted of a wooden frame, filled with flowers, and finished off with "a large china doll in a blue frock". On May Day morning the local children carried this garland around the village, starting at the rectory, singing songs for which they were given pennies. This is the first verse of their song:

"A bunch of May I have brought you
And at your door it stands.
It is but a sprout, but it's well put about
By the Lord Almighty's hands"

"During the singing of this the Rector's face, wearing its mildest expression and debaubed with shaving lather, for it was as yet seven o'clock, would appear at an upper window and nod approval and admiration of the garland."

THINKING ABOUT NATURE TRADITIONS

As Flora Thompson recognised, the flower-decorated figure was probably a relic from pre-Christian times. It could have represented "some pagan spirit of the newly decked earth". There has always been a dilemma for Christianity when it was first brought to countries such as Britain. Should the church expect people who became Christians to give up all their earlier customs? Or should it try to keep the good things and fit them into Christian beliefs?

The Rector in Lark Rise, nodding approval of the May garland, is probably like an earlier priest in the parish, perhaps in Anglo-Saxon times, who decided to bless the pagan practices of his flock with a Christian prayer. Although Christianity does not worship nature, it shares with many religions the understanding that all creation is a gift which should be celebrated.