Children's May Day Crowning

Helen is hosting a Lovliness of Marian Devotion fair over at The Castle of the Immaculate and I have this posting, not from this year's May but Helen has been good to allow this to be part of this beautiful fair.

Invitations had gone out, with the invite itself written over the top of this beautiful image of Our Blessed Mother.

THE MAY QUEEN

"She wears sunlight in her hair

And violets in her eyes

And her cheeks are the petals of a rose.

She bears Love on her arm

And lilies are her feet,

And they carry Life wherever she goes.

There are graces on her lips

And rainbows on her robes

And her wreath is the coronet of May.

She is Fairy Queen of earth-

The wand at her heart

Is a Bud from the Triune Bouquet.

She is Mother, Queen, and Maid,

And God is her Child,

And her Courts are the meadows where They play

And her Courts Forever and for aye.

She is Mary full of grace.

She is Queen of Eternal May."

This was a special day where the children led the prayers, procession, consecration and crowning of Our Blessed Mother at our home. The house and yard had been joyfully decorated in Marian coloured streamers and bows. Marian tapestries were hung, banners proclaiming our love to our Mother were fluttering in the breeze and the Mary Garden was all prepared for the crowning.

It started off with the children being broken up into 2 age groups, and a Marian book was read and discussed - This is the under 5 group, where a lady is reading The Donkey's Dream and discussing the Marian symbols.

The older group was read a story from The Forty Dreams of St John Bosco where he relates the dream with the boys bringing up various gifts to Our Lady, some beautiful, some tainted, some unacceptable - we also talked about a rosary a day for the rest of our lives is 2 million "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" that we have said for our death bed.

Then the older boys led the procession around the yard, whilst reciting the rosary and singing a Marian hymn in between each decade. A child led each mystery.

The younger girls had brought flower petals from their own gardens and were scattering the petals in front of their Mother...kissing each petal and throwing it.

The boys led us right around the perimeter of our yard, while the strains of a Marian hymn rang out.

The bower that our Mother stood in, was filled with the flowers the children from each family had brought to honour her, a blue mantilla lace for her mantle.

The Hail Holy Queen was recited in front of our Mother as the procession came to an end.


The children then led us all in consecrating ourselves to her motherly love and care.

Then the specially chosen, older girl, dressed in white and blue, crowned our Mother with a woven crown made from the roses and flowers in the garden.

The day finished with shared plates of food on the deck and some Marian games for the children to enjoy.

"The Many Faces of Our Lady" game, with different images of Our Lady hanging from the tree. This game had some elements of musical chairs (to the strains of Dana's Hail Holy Queen tape) with an image of Our Lady being called out and explained, the child who was holding onto that image would then step out to the side and continue to watch, the image then removed from the tree. When the music started again they would move in out of the pictures floating above their heads and hold onto another one when the music stopped. The winning child being the last one to have their image called out and explained.

Then there was a Marian quiz that tested the Marian knowledge of pairs of children, until there was only one winning pair left.

The games finished with an exciting Marian Quiz Treasure Hunt, with three teams, Team Fatima, Team Lourdes, Team Guadalupe, each team had a parent to supervise their quest. The teams would run from one base to the next (each teams going to different bases at different times) and opening up their next quiz question which had to be answered correctly for them to move to the next base with the final quiz question leading them to the treasure in the Mary Garden.

It was a beautiful day to honour Our Blessed Mother that we will never forget!