Page "May Day" Paragraph 28

Other apotropaic rites include, in some areas of the country, people washing their faces with the morning dew ( for good health ) and adorning the gates for good luck and abundance with green branches or with birch saplings ( for the houses with maiden girls ).

The entries to the animals shelters are also adorned with green branches.

All branches are left in place until the wheat harvest when they are used in the fire which will bake the first bread from the new wheat.