April 2016 Edition of Clarion (1)

Did You Know?...May Day...
At last, the summer is on its way!
We have just celebrated May Day, which originates from the Pagan
festival of Beltane. The earliest May Day celebrations are thought to
have occurred during the Roman era when youths would celebrate the
coming of spring with a day of dancing dedicated to the goddess Flora.
During medieval times May Day became dedicated to Robin Hood and
saw songs and plays performed up and down the country to celebrate
the coming of spring.
Many May Day celebrations were banned by the Church during more puritanical times, due to the pagan
origins of the festival. Some Roman Catholic organisations celebrate the Virgin Mary on May 1, with a ‘May
crowning’ of the Blessed Virgin. May Day began early in the morning. People would go out before sunrise in
order to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their houses and villages with in the belief that the vegetation
spirits would bring good fortune.
Girls would make a special point of washing their faces in the dew of
the early morning. They believed this made them very beautiful for
the following year. The rest of the day was given over to various
festivities. There was dancing on the village green, archery contest
and exhibitions of strength. The highlight of the day was the
crowning of the May Queen, the human replica of Flora. By tradition
she took no part in the games or dancing, but sat like a queen in a
flower-decked chair to watch her 'subjects'.
Young girls would make May Garlands. They covered two hoops,
one at right angles inside the other, with leaves and flowers, and
sometimes they put a doll inside to represent the goddess of Spring.
There was once a tradition in England of 'lifting' where a gang of young men would lift a pretty girl in a flower
bedecked chair on May day. Then the girl would choose a boy on May 2nd. In the North of England, the first of
May was a kind of late 'April Fooling' when all sorts of pranks would take place.
Nowadays, in some places, May Day celebrations still begin at sunset on 30 April. They include lots of floral
decorations and processions through towns and villages.
The maypole itself, traditionally
made from birch, is deeply rooted
in the Germanic Pagan tradition.
In the 16th century, maypoles
were erected by a group of
villagers in a symbol of
community bonding, though were
a fierce source of inter-village
rivalry.
Rumour has it that Mayfair in London is named after a particularly debauched and raucous festival held during
the 18th century. It wasn’t until 1978 that the Labour Government introduced the May Day Bank Holiday to the
national calendar.
In 2000 serious rioting broke out during the ‘May Day riots’, where
masked ‘anti-capitalist’ demonstrators ransacked a McDonald’s and
destroyed a number of buildings in the City of London.
In 2001 a repeat protest occurred, with 54 people arrested by police
after rioting broke out.
And then there's the image of May Day that is more familiar...!