Undeniably one of the most pleasurable customs in France is giving and receiving little bunches of freshly picked Lily of the Valley on the First of May. Waking up this morning and opening my front door, it was to find a beautiful sweet smelling bunch on my step, put their by a special friend. Then a text on my mobile with a 'virtual' sprig of Muguet from another friend. Then even more as I went to wander through the annual flower market in the Lalinde market square -- meeting up with friends, sharing this lovely age-old custom.
* Le muguet - convallaria maialis - or Lily of the Valley (latin convallis (valley),de leiron (lily) and maialis (of May)). The French name Le Muguet probably comes from the latin word muscus, because of the flower's strong perfume.
Le muguet is a flower that "porte-bonheur" -- brings happiness and the French have this wonderful tradition of giving little bunches of muguet to friends on the 1st of May -- a tradition that was started in 1561 by King Charles X when he gave all the ladies of his court a small posy of Lily of the Valley..
To pick muguet, you should use sharp secateurs and be careful not to pull the bulbs from the soil. --- If the bulbs or 'roots' of the plant are disturbed, the plant will not flower again next year.
Although the chief constituents of Lily-of-the-Valley are used in many beneficial medicines, one should take great care, as the entire plant is extremely poisonous -- even the water in which the posy has been kept, is poisonous and should be handled with great care. The constituents of the plant are two glucosides, Convallamarin, the active principle, a white crystalline powder, readily soluble in water and in alcohol, but only slightly in ether, which acts upon the heart like Digitalin, and has also diuretic action, and Convallarin, which is crystalline in prisms, soluble in alcohol, slightly soluble in water and has a purgative action. There are also present a trace of volatile oil, tannin and salts. Lily-of-the-Valley is valued as a cardiac tonic and diuretic. The action of the drug closely resembles that of Digitalis, though it is less powerful; it is used as a substitute and strongly recommended in valvular heart disease, also in cases of cardiac debility and dropsy. It slows the disturbed action of a weak, irritable heart, whilst at the same time increasing its power. It is a perfectly safe remedy. No harm has been known to occur from taking it in full and frequent doses, it being preferable in this respect to Digitalis, which is apt to accumulate in the blood with poisonous results.
It also proved most useful in cases of poisonous gassing the soldiers at the front in WWI.
May Day traditions go back to the dawn of time. In the ancient world, it was the date when sailors went back to sea. It was the beginning of the third quarter of the Celtic year.In the middle ages, May was the month when betrothals were made.At the turn of the century, the great fashion houses gave sprigs of lily-of-the-valley to their customers and apprentices on May Day.
By 1976, lily-of-the-valley was completely associated with May Day and every year tens of millions of sprigs of both wild and cultivated lily-of-the-valley are sold on this day.
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