May Day marks the beginning of summer, and it is one of the oldest surviving festivals in Britain. The Early May Bank Holiday falls on the first Monday of the month, but the traditional customs belong to the 1st itself.
Where it comes from
The roots are pre-Christian. The Celtic festival of Beltane marked the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when cattle were driven out to summer pasture between two fires for protection. The Roman festival of Flora, goddess of flowers, occupied the same slot.
What survived into English village life was a celebration of fertility, greenery and the return of the light — which is exactly why the Puritans disliked it so much. Maypoles were banned by Parliament in 1644, and re-erected with enthusiasm at the Restoration.
The customs
Dawn singing at Oxford
The most famous May Morning event in Britain. At 6am on 1 May the choir of Magdalen College sings the Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of Magdalen Tower to a crowd of several thousand in the High Street below. Pubs open early, morris sides dance in the street, and a substantial proportion of the audience has come straight from a ball.
Jumping from Magdalen Bridge into the Cherwell was a student tradition until 2005, when the river proved too shallow and around forty people were injured. The bridge is now closed for the morning.
The maypole
A tall pole hung with ribbons, which children hold and weave into a plaited pattern as they dance around it in opposite directions. It survives mainly through primary schools and village fêtes, and the plaiting version is largely a Victorian refinement of a much older and simpler dance around a decorated tree.
The May Queen
A girl chosen and crowned with flowers to preside over the day’s celebrations, still elected in many villages.
Jack in the Green
A figure entirely covered in a framework of leaves and greenery, paraded through the streets and ceremonially “slain” to release the spirit of summer. Revived in Hastings, Rochester and elsewhere, and connected in the popular imagination — though not reliably in the historical record — with the Green Man carvings found in medieval churches.
Padstow and Minehead
Two Cornish and Somerset towns hold the most intense May Day celebrations in Britain. Padstow’s ‘Obby ‘Oss festival involves two rival hobby horses processing through the streets from midnight to a relentless drum and accordion tune, accompanied by thousands of people singing the May Song. It is genuinely extraordinary, closer to a trance than a parade, and the town is packed.
The other May Day
1 May is also International Workers’ Day, marked by trade union marches and rallies. The two meanings coexist without much friction, and the bank holiday itself was only introduced in 1978 — a fact that occasionally resurfaces when a government floats moving it.