Today marks the beginning of a new month and on the first of May, the tradition of May Day is widely celebrated.

Traditionally, May Day was a springtime festival that in pagan times involved crowning a May Queen and dancing round a maypole, but more recently it has been acknowledged as an international day to honour workers, especially those who don’t always receive the most recognition. This is pertinent at the moment, as the world continues to deal with the Coronavirus crisis, many of these less acknowledged workers are the people who are crucial to keeping our societies functioning and so are valued now more than ever.

Celebrating springtime also has relevance today with the new normal way of life we are experiencing. Spring is all about nature blooming, which is associated with positivity, as nature thrives after going through the hard times of winter, the new season evokes a sense of hope as it reminds us that difficult times do not last, we just need to be patient and wait for times of bloom. This resonates with what is going on in the world right now, as there is a lot of uncertainty and we are being forced to live in a way that we are not used to, but we must remind ourselves that this time will not last, we just have to be patient. When things return to normal, this time of change should have helped us to appreciate more the things that we have been deprived of in isolation and the things that we take for granted.

We need to stay hopeful for the future and also focus on the positives of our current situation. Life may look a bit different right now but things have slowed down, giving us a lot of time to learn new hobbies that we would never have had time for before, and it also allows us the thinking time to reflect on what we don’t like about our ‘normal’ lives. So, what positive changes can we make when things go back to normal?