I remember May Day when I was a kid, we would steal flowers from wherever they might be blooming, put them in little baskets or paper cones, then drop them on neighbor's front steps, ring the doorbell, and run. Kind of a sweet tradition if you're the one getting the flowers, kind of like garden vandalism if your flowers are being stolen.
The great thing about doing the May Day Ring-n-Run where we live is that there are no private gardens, so nobody's flowers are being stolen ("everybody's" flowers are!). The other great thing is that our apartment complex, despite its run-down look the rest of the year, is in May resplendent with flowering trees.Vivi, our friend Lola, and I picked an over-abundance of blossoms for our flower cones.
The not-so-great thing about doing the Ring-n-Run here is that the doors to most apartments do not have exterior door knobs (nothing to hang the cones on!) and that most apartments are in security buildings, so unless you get lucky and dash into the building as someone else is coming out, you risk revealing yourself just trying to get to the door.
One of the things I love best about my Qingdao community is how we are all from different parts of the world and we all have different cultural backgrounds to share. The Ring-n-Run was new to nearly everyone we left flowers for; Brits, Aussies, Romanians, Germans, Chinese...the only ones who knew what we were up to were the few Americans in the neighborhood.
Happy May Day, everyone!
