A maypole, a horse and a walking shrubbery - it's May Day in the UK

By

As spring finally begins to make itself felt in the UK, a number of celebrations are called into being. One of the earliest - after Easter - is May Day. While officially, May Day is the first day of May, the first Monday in May is taken for the May Day Bank Holiday.

Britain is by no means unique in celebrating this day. May celebrations date back to Roman times, when Floralia celebrations were held in aid of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. Celts marked the festival of Beltane with singing, dancing and bonfires. In more recent times, the Catholic church has celebrated the Virgin Mary, Queen of May. In 1899, the International Social Congress chose 1 May as a day to honour workers, later marked by Communist Russia.

The May Day celebrations that have taken place in the UK for hundreds of years, and are still practised today, are a mix of pagan and religious traditions. The Maypole is a key element: it symbolises male fertility, and is used for a dance in which participants weave in and out of one another holding ribbons which make an attractive pattern on the pole. In the past, neighbouring villages would compete to see who had the tallest trunk. Sometimes a May Queen is crowned: a girl from the village or town who walks or rides at the front of a procession or parade.

Morris dancers in Stratford-upon-Avon

Morris dancers, who traditionally danced around the maypole, are often involved in May Day celebrations. In Stratford-upon-Avon, dancers "dance up the sun" at 5.25am beside the Avon and then dance all around the town. In recent years, there has been something of a revival of interest in dancing and May Day celebrations, with dances taking place as far afield as Padstow and Edinburgh, Minehead and Glastonbury.

For a more unusual celebration, head to Whitstable or Hastings, where the tradition of 'Jack in the Green' has been revived. Jack's origins are shrouded in mystery: some claim he is a survival from pagan tradition, others that he dates back to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. Supposedly, he dates from a time when May Day celebrations meant making bigger and more ridiculous garlands that eventually seemed to cover the carrier in greenery. Nowadays, an individual completely covered in foliage (and in Hastings, wearing a floral crown) heads a procession to mark the day. At the end, he is "slain" (foliage removed) to release the spirit of summer.

Jack in the Green celebrations in Hastings

On 1 May 2023 I actually attended a Jack in the Green procession, held in Deptford, south east London. There was a lovely atmosphere and the whole thing had a real celebratory feel.

Jack in the Green procession in Deptford

If walking foliage isn't your thing, head down to Padstow in Cornwall, where the 'Obby 'Oss festival takes place each May 1st. Beginning at midnight on the 30th of April, townspeople gather outside the Golden Lion Inn to sing the "Night Song". By morning, the town is decorated for May Day with greenery and a maypole. Throughout the day, two separate parades take place, each led by an 'Obby 'Oss. Each horse wears a mask and a cape over a frame, under which they try to catch young maidens. Late in tne evening, the horses meet at the maypole before returning to their respective "stables".

'Obby 'Oss in Padstow

While the Oxford custom of gathering at 6am to hear a Latin hymn sung from the top of Magdalen College tower is appealing, the custom of jumping into the Cherwell from Magdalen Bridge should perhaps be approached with caution. In 2005 - a year when water levels were particularly low - 40 people were injured.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Halloween: it's not an American holiday

By
Image
 As Halloween gets bigger and bigger in the UK, many individuals complain about how this "American holiday" is taking over. While a reluctance to open the door to strange children and hand out sweets is somewhat understandable, Halloween itself has ancient roots in Celtic culture, although some of the modern day trappings of the holiday do come from the land across the pond. The Celtic festival of Samhain ('SAH-win') was a pagan religious celebration to mark what was then the New Year and celebrate the harvest. Bonfires were a big part of the celebration, and people would wear costumes to confuse and ward off ghosts, who were believed to wander the earth at this time. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III chose 1 November as All Saints Day, and the evening before became known as All Hallows Eve, later Halloween. The idea of the dead coming into contact with the living continued. Jack-o'-Lanterns originated in Ireland, but originally, turnips were used instead of...
Read more

It's Panto time! (Oh no it isn't!)

By
Image
Dick Whittington at Richmond Theatre, 2023-2024 A traditional Christmas in the UK would not be complete without a trip to the local pantomime. Each year, theatres fill up with families eager to see TV, music and (in recent years) social media stars take to the stage in a fairytale adapted for the modern age, with songs, audience participation and usually some sweets thrown into the audience. Some of the most common pantos are Aladdin , Cinderella , Sleeping Beauty  and The Snow Queen , but the stories are always written afresh and often contain local in-jokes. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a British tradition, panto has its roots abroad. 'Commedia dell-Arte' was a sixteenth-century Italian style of entertainment which made use of stock characters, such as Harlequin, Pantaloon and Pierrot, and a mixture of dance, music and acrobatics to tell a story. By the eighteenth century, this style of performance had made its way to London. The early pantomimes were based on classical storie...
Read more

Happy New Year! The custom of first footing

By
Image
First footing observed in Scotland Well, 2023 is nearly over, and it's nearly time to welcome in 2024. To mark the occasion, I'm going to talk about a custom I grew up with: first footing. The tradition of the first foot is common in Scotland, and is also known close to the border in northern England. My family observed the tradition thanks to my mam, whose family in Cumbria (north west England) celebrated New Year in a big way. The idea is that to ensure good luck for the upcoming year, the first person to step over the threshold of your house after midnight strikes on New Year's Eve should be a tall, dark-haired man. At 6' 4" my dad fitted this criteria perfectly. Even today, now his hair is white, we still send him outside just before midnight so he can step back in afterwards! As a child, I never really questioned this tradition, but researching it as an adult it is suggested that the man needing to be dark-haired is a throwback to the days of Viking invasion, ...
Read more