Set May Flowers by the Door to Welcome Good Fortune / 🇮🇪 Ireland

At May Day in Ireland, flowers placed at a doorstep carry a wish for the people inside. Yellow flowers such as primroses appear in accounts of the custom. A few bright blooms are enough to change the way a familiar entrance looks. The custom gives you a moment to wish for the well-being of everyone who uses the door, whether they are coming home or dropping in for a visit.

1. Choose a small bunch of seasonal flowers that you can pick with permission, or use flowers you already have. Look for yellow if you want to follow a common Irish example.
2. On the evening before 1 May, bring the bunch to your entrance. Set it at the side of the doorstep or on a stable windowsill.
3. Leave enough room for the door and for people passing through. If the flowers need a container, pick one that will stay in place when the wind catches it.
4. Pause at the entrance and wish for something you want to welcome into your household this summer. You might name a person you look forward to seeing.

May Day marked the beginning of summer in the Irish calendar. The National Museum of Ireland describes picking flowers on May Eve and placing them at doors or windows. Primroses, buttercups and marigolds were among the yellow flowers people used. The habit was particularly strong in the northern half of the island. In the account recorded at Moneyduff, flowers were laid at the dwelling and the outbuildings after sunset, with a wish for luck in the year ahead. A display at the doorway made that wish visible just as the season turned. Put out a small bunch and you can see why this particular gesture has such a direct appeal.

If you share the entrance, take a moment to tell the other people in your home why the flowers are there. They may have a different hope for the season, and the bunch can mark both wishes.