The first of May, or May Day, is the remnant of Beltane an ancient spring festival celebrating the fertility of nature. May is a sensual month. The world is alive and it is celebrating the fact.
May Day Customs
To a society whose prosperity depended so much on the weather and the changing of the seasons, the celebration of the First of May was as much a part of the calendar as Christmas and Easter, and its customs were a part of village life.
In the past it was customary for the young to go ‘a-Maying’, or get up with the dawn and go out into the fields to gather flowers and greenery or ‘gather the spring’ and bring it in to decorate the homes and villages in the belief that the vegetation spirits would bring in good fortune.
Girls and young women snuck out to bathe their faces in the morning dew to prolong their youth and beauty the year through as it was known, ‘The fair maid who, the First of May, Goes to the field at break of day. And washes in the dew from the hawthorn tree. Will ever after handsome be.’- Mother Goose rhyme.
“Both May Eve and May Day were traditionally a time of letting your hair down and getting a little crazy, of acting out your spring fever. But as early as 1240, the Bishop of Lincoln complained in writing that too many priests were also joining in the fun!” -Jennifer Cutting, American folklorist.
The Puritans tried to put an end to ‘going a-Maying’ sighting that afterward not one of the girls remained a virgin. “The practice was for a time discontinued during the Commonwealth, but about 1654 it was revived, to the disgust of the Puritans.” writes Henry Benjamin Wheatley, British author, editor, and indexer, 1899. And May Day celebrations continued complete with a May Pole dance and in many places a May Queen.