May Day! Happy Summer!

Magdalen Tower, Oxford, is the center of the historic May Day celebrations in the university town.

Magdalen Tower, Oxford, is the center of the historic May Day celebrations in the university town.

May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, during the Roman Republic era; during the Middle Ages, the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries marked the last winter frolic of witches and devils. May Day is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.

Secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the Maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets,” small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps. I remember making May baskets in elementary schools and Maypole games on the playground.

May Day is celebrated at the University of Oxford with special gusto. The day starts early (at 6 a.m.!) with the Magdalen College Choir singing a hymn, the Hymnus Eucharisticus, from the top of Magdalen Tower, a tradition of over 500 years. Large crowds normally gather under the tower along the High Street and on Magdalen Bridge. (Magdalen Tower is one of the oldest parts of Magdalen College, Oxford, situated directly in the High Street. Built of stone from 1492, when the foundation stone was laid, its bells hung ready for use in 1505, and completed by 1509, it is an important element of the Oxford skyline. At 144 feet high, it is the tallest building in Oxford. It dominates the eastern entrance to the city, towering over Magdalen Bridge and with good views from the Botanic Garden across the street.) This is then followed by general revelry and festivities including Morris dancing, impromptu music, etc., for a couple of hours. There is a party atmosphere, despite the early hour. In fact, there are normally all-night balls the night before, so some people (especially students) are in formal attire (e.g., black tie/white tie or ball gown).

Near Record Set! 2nd Most Visited Day

We had the second-most visits ever on Friday, May 1, 2015! HUZZAH!

We had the second-most visits ever on Friday, May 1, 2015! HUZZAH!

I was flabbergasted! I checked on the statistics for this site last week — who doesn’t like to know how often people are checking in and reading something you have to say? — and guess what? There were 135 visits to the site on Friday, May 1! That is the second most busy day we have ever had here at stephenmorrisauthor.com! The most popular post on May 1 was the one featuring the Lily of the Valley, the Folkloric “flower of the month” for May.

Another surprise was that 100+ of those visits on May 1 were from readers in France! 🙂

What was the #1 most busy day, you might wonder? That was April 4, 2014 when we had 145 visits — only 10 more visits than last week! The most popular post on that day was the one about Emerald, the traditional birthstone/gem of May. May folklore certainly seems to be popular! (These two posts are generally among the most popular in the archives here but the daily visits rarely reach into the stratospheric heights recorded on April 4 last year and May 1 last week!

I also discovered last week that there are 78 readers who follow my blog through the Goodreads website. (That’s in addition to the 400+ readers who follow the blog via Facebook.) It was great to see how many people follow the blog through so many different venues. I’m amazed!

“Happy Beltane / May Day!”

Queen Guinevere, as the May Queen, leads the May Day celebrations in Camelot.

Queen Guinevere, as the May Queen, leads the May Day celebrations in Camelot.

Considered the first day of the summer season in traditional European societies, the first day of May has been celebrated in many ways over many centuries. May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls half a year from November 1 (Samhain, Hallowe’en, and All Saints’ Day) and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole dance and crowning of the Queen of the May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets”, small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps. (I remember making May Baskets in school and field day Maypoles on the playground.)

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.

In Oxford, it is traditional for May Morning revellers to gather below the Great Tower of Magdalen College at 6:00 a.m. to listen to the college choir sing traditional madrigals as a conclusion to the previous night’s celebrations.

On May Day, the Romanians celebrate the arminden (or armindeni), the beginning of summer, symbolically tied with the protection of crops and farm animals. The name comes from Slavonic Jeremiinŭ dĭnĭ, meaning the prophet Jeremiah’s feast day, but the celebration rites and habits of this day are apotropaic and pagan, possibly originating in the cult of the god Pan.

The day is also called ziua pelinului (mugwort day) or ziua bețivilor (drunkards’ day) and it is celebrated to insure good wine in autumn and, for people and farm animals alike, good health and protection from the elements of nature (storms, hail, illness, pests). People would have parties outdoors with fiddlers and it was customary to eat roast lamb, as well as new mutton cheese and drink mugwort-flavoured wine to refresh the blood and get protection from diseases. On the way back from the parties, the men wear lilac or mugwort flowers on their hats.

Other May Day practices in many places include 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.