May Day of the Dead

Some people like darkness, skulls and death.
Some people like sunshine, flowers and reproduction.
May Day of the Dead is a holiday for everyone.

What we really need in America is more holidays. Europeans have them. Therefore, we should also have them.

Obviously, this would be some kind of circle-of-life-affirming holiday that happens some time in the month of May. You would probably want to dress up for it.

It could celebrate either the impending death of everything alive right now, or the spring reincarnation of things that have died since the last May. Or since the beginning of time. At its best, it would celebrate both. Carpe diem meets conservation. A people's holiday.

Like all good holidays, festivities for May Day of the Dead should include candles, a parade, planting a tree, playing live music, food, and time for reflection.

It could go down like this:

People gather at one person's house around mid-day. You eat and hang out and discuss all the positive aspects of life and death. At some point, you write a wish on a piece of white paper for something you want to do before you die or whatever and keep it with you. Once everyone has arrived and eaten and talked, you go on a parade in your fancy spring clothes or death-celebrating outfit to a park or around a block or anywhere as long as you end up outside. Someone towards the front of the procession should have a lit candle and some people towards the back should be playing musical instruments as you walk. When you get to where you're going, you'll dig a hole or prepare a pot to plant your tree. Then, you'll light your wish paper on fire with the candle and drop it in the hole/pot. Once everyone has burned their wishes, you'll plant the tree and there will be music. At this point, you all have a party with lanterns and music and plants and animals and dancing into the night.

Good accessories for this holiday are flower crowns, leis, skulls, skeletons, strings of tin or aluminum cans (which you would then recycle), etc.

And it's only mid-April, so you totally have time to prep for May Day of the Dead.