On the first day of the month of May it is a custom to lay flowers and scented herbs, or place tall fir-tree branches decorated with flowers in front of sweethearts’ doors and at the same time to sing songs telling of wishes and amorous woes.

... all the streets at dawn, were sweet scented with the trees, as if it were a forest. After the hot sun came out, everybody kneeled, praying humbly and submissively for health and progress to the almighty and omnipotent ruler.

Thus Petar Zoranić wrote in his “Mountains” in 1536.