Folklore of England

1 May

Folklore from the old calendars

The poor May Lady at Cambridge No longer kept CambridgeshireAt Cambridge on May Day children dressed up a doll in a grotesque fashion and called it the May Lady.
The printers’ May feast at Stationers’ Hall No longer kept LondonRandle Holme wrote in 1688 that the journeymen printers, with the letter founders and ink makers, held a general feast every year at Stationers' Hall on or about May Day, paid for by half a crown from each guest.
The Queen of the May Still kept EnglandIn the old May games the fairest girl of the village was crowned Queen of the May.
The Raine’s school bride No longer kept LondonA correspondent told Hone that every May Day a girl from Raine's charity school at St George in the East, near London, was chosen to be married.
The Strand maypole No longer kept LondonParliament ordered every maypole in England and Wales taken down in 1644.
The sweeps’ garland and Jack-in-the-green Still kept LondonMay Day was the great festival of London's chimney sweeps.
Thread my needle round Baldock on May Day No longer kept HertfordshireOn May Day the children of Baldock were out with the sun, carrying hooped garlands of flowers and ribbons on staves from door to door, led by a flag made of a silk handkerchief hung from an ash bough.
Twenty yoke of oxen for the maypole No longer kept EnglandThe maypole was hauled home from the wood by twenty or forty yoke of oxen, each ox with a nosegay of flowers tied on the tip of its horns.
Whitethorn over the door against witches Lore and belief EnglandReginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, recorded that people hung in their entries, among other things, hawthorn gathered on May Day to keep witches away.
Why the whitethorn is called May Lore and belief EnglandThe whitethorn took the name May because, before the change of the calendar, it flowered about the feast of St Philip and St James on the first day of May.

Folklore of England

1 May

1 May, not tied to the day

2 May

3 May, not tied to the day

the first Sunday on or after 2 May

3 May

the first Wednesday on or after 1 May

7 May, not tied to the day

8 May, not tied to the day

8 May

the first Sunday on or after 8 May

10 May, not tied to the day

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