Folklore

Lore, beliefs and customs no longer kept, day by day, from Hone’s Every-Day Book, Chambers’s Book of Days and others.

Saturday 1 May

Folklore from the old calendars

O’Donoghue’s white horse Lore and belief MunsterFrom Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland, Hone gives the belief that at first light on May morning the princely O'Donoghue rides his white horse over the waters of Killarney.
Washing in the May dew on Arthur’s Seat Still kept MidlothianChambers found that almost the only May Day habit left in his day was for young women to go out early and wash their faces in the dew, which was held to make them fair.
The milkmaids’ garland No longer kept LondonOn May Day the London milkmaids went round their customers' houses in their best clothes, dancing to a fiddle or pipe and tabor for the annual present.
The Cadi and the May garland No longer kept WalesA correspondent told Hone that labouring people in Wales still kept the May dance, and for a fortnight beforehand the talk of the village was who would dance, who would carry the garland and who would be the Cadi.
The Hitchin Mayers No longer kept HertfordshireA letter from Hitchin in 1823 told Hone how, soon after three on May morning, townspeople and labourers paraded the streets singing the Mayers' Song and fixed large branches of may to the doors of nearly every respectable house.