Photo of the Week – May 4, 2012

May Day in France (known as ‘le premier mai’) is the official spring holiday, as well as being ‪International Workers’ Day‬. The tradition is to buy a small sprig of ‘muguet’ (lily of the valley) for your loved ones. On Tuesday, muguet venders were ready at every busy corner and Parisians on the go carried bunches of delicate white flowers on their way home. The tradition started in 1561 when King Charles IX was given a lily of the valley for good luck. The ladies of the court were then given a muguet as well, and the custom took hold with the public in the early 1900s. The photo of the week was taken on May Day in 1932 using the wet plate photographic process (a glass plate negative coated with photographic emulsion). The title translates to ‘Lily of the Valley sale, May 1st’. Photo credit: La vente du muguet le 1er Mai : /Agence de presse Mondial Photo-Presse.