With the month of May welcoming in the season of growth, the awareness of dawn and some of the longest days of the year provided the excuse for the Mummers Foundation to organise the first of post-Covid-restrictions workshops with local schools.
The venue was the loughshore at Aughakillymaude, where new buds, shoots and blooms made it easy to understand why May is traditionally associated with floral decorations.
Pupils from the Bunscoil an Traonaigh busied themselves collecting primroses, celandines, forget-me-nots and elderflowers along with greenery and used vines of ivy to fashion head garlands from lands adjoining Knockninny quay.
According to Jim Ledwith, all the pupils readily identified with the fun and creativity of being able to make simple, colourful head garlands, bedecked with mayflowers and greenery, as the trees are in full leaf.
In doing so, the tradition of mayboys was re-enacted, whereby children went about households sporting colourful headgear and white shirts in order to solicit treats.
After the loughshore ventures, the children were taken to view the majestic sight of bluebells at Knockninny hazelwood.
Together with a loughshore walk, the schoolchildren spent their free time at lunch playing the traditional bowling game of skittles at Aughakillymaude.
The mayflower garland workshop was generously supported by the Lough Erne landscape partnership through funding from the National Heritage lottery fund.
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