The Welsh fairies were thought to hold their great banquets on set nights, and the eve of Old May Day was one of them, with St John’s Eve another. Owen suggested that the May-day dances, the Midsummer Eve festivities and Nos Galan Gaeaf, the night that ushers in winter, had all come down from the fairies. He quoted the poet Glasynys on fairy crowds singing under the protection of St Dwynwen on Nos Wyl Ifan.
The fairies’ feast on Old May Eve
Printed under 11 May · Wales
Lore and belief
May-day dances and revelling have reached our days, and probably they have, like the Midsummer Eve's festivities, their origin in the far off times when the Fairy Tribe inhabited Britain
From Owen's Welsh Folk-Lore, p. 95. Read the original
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