British May Day  

 It is time to throw off winter gloom. Raise your head. Look around. The World is stirring. The Sun is warming the Earth. Plants are beginning to grow. It is time to sow your seeds. Prepare for your future.

The first weekend in May has been a day to celebrate since our pagan days. Even the Romans had their Festival of Flora, their day of flowers, around this time of year.

Our ancestors regarded it as the time for romance, for reminding ourselves to enjoy what life can offer. This is the time to smarten up, for housewives to spring clean winter-dusty houses, girls to put on bright clothes, wear pretty flowers, wash their faces in dew fresh water. Take some trouble to look nice. Everyone cheers up.

Many old English customs have either been revived from folklore or modified for us today.

Two important customs link us to those pagan days.
The village Maypole, and The Morris Men with their special dance.

Every village had their own Maypole, stored and proudly brought out every year.
Some were higher than the local church spire.
One erected in 1661 in the Strand London was said to be 134 feet high.
Taken down in 1717, it was used for space exploration in that it became part of an experimental telescope observatory. Nothing wasted in those days.

The village maypole had many ribbons of different colours hanging down. The first ceremony consisted of children each taking one end of a ribbon and weaving a pattern as they danced around the pole in a pre-arranged sequence, thus covering it with pretty colours from top to bottom.
The result did depend on how much time and attention had been given to rehearsals.

The May Day continued with various fete-type competitions such as tug of war, archery, wrestling, and ending with the selection and crowning of the local May Queen and her attendants.

After these events, their turn has arrived.
The Morris Men form up in two facing lines, dressed in special clothes, usually white, fitted with small bells which tinkle as they moved in time with the dance.
They carry short sticks to bang against each other in the dance rhythm.
Music is usually an accordion which does not require a power supply.
Some larger events may have a more elaborate band but most try to keep things simple.

This energetic dance apparently creates significant thirst.
For some reason this little ceremony was held outside the village pub.
But that’s another quaint English custom.

Before the days of easy travelling, locals developed their own versions of a day off.

Rochester in Kent have a Sweeps Holiday. Chimney sweeps dress up in greenery and pretend to be a tree. They organised a ‘Sweeps Parade’ as part of the day’s musical and dancing activities. Many songs have been handed down through many generations.

Glastonbury have a Fair involving the monastery, where the public could walk around without paying the usual entry fee. Men dressed as Medieval Knights demonstrate sword fights and other such skills.

Knutsford in Cheshire have their own Royal Day when streets are ‘sanded’ in their own special ceremony. Dating only from 1864 it was given the title Royal by the then Prince of Wales.

Minehead in Somerset have a ceremony based on the old English idea of a ‘Hobby Horse.’ This symbol of fertility is placed outside a pub. Musicians gather round and the ‘horse’ moves slowly through the town, demanding money from bystanders. The procession arrives outside another pub called The Hobby Horse. Time for a drink.
The ‘Town’ hobby horse arrives and the two horses battle for a short time before both retiring to ‘The Dunster Castle.’ More sustenance is desperately needed.
Vaughan Williams composed a piece to celebrate this event.
Padstow in Cornwall has its own version of the hobby horse battle. It is understood to date back to the 14th century.

They boast three ‘obby ‘osses; A children’s, a Blue and an Old. All ‘obby ‘osses.
Children can parade their ‘oss through the town while beating their drums until 10 am.
The Blue or Peace ‘obby ‘oss then parades through the town accompanied by its dancers in white and blue uniforms.

Eventually a challenge is made by the Old ‘obby ‘oss and after suitable confrontation time, all retire to the pub for essential refreshment.
This ceremony is felt so deeply by locals it is said soldiers from Padstow insisted on performing their May Day dances in the trenches in World War One.

Many universities hold their May Ball.
Normal teenage type activities are completed with some traditional dramatic moment.
Oxford moment is for students to jump, in evening dress, off the Magdalene Bridge into the river Cherwell. This has currently been stopped by police blocking off the bridge.
Cambridge University version is also to jump fully clothed into the river.

All this national merriment was not at all approved of by Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans.
Almost his first act in power was to ban maypoles and Morris Men. It was too much like fun.

The 13th century Bishop of Lincoln complained if his clergy took part in such events.
The Catholic Church banned May Day and Maypoles.

Although most of these customs developed during the Middle Ages, their origin was a pagan holy day to celebrate the arrival of Spring and all this meant to an agricultural society.
Celts and Saxons called it the Day of Fire. Their main activity seems to have been rolling burning wheels down hills.
During the Middle Ages, May Day was first proclaimed ‘the Day for Workers’. This encouraged the new Guilds of the new crafts being developed. These eventually became the modern Trade Unions.

From such simple fete days developed a ‘holiday for workers’.
Banks closed on the Monday, making this a Bank Holiday long weekend.
So developed a national day off from normal work. A day to visit the seaside or take a holiday somewhere else. Have a ‘switch off’ from the daily grind.

So arrived the idea of a national day off for all workers.
Enjoy!

Culture