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UPCOMING GIGS
Sunday 26th July 2–4.30 p.m. Community Bandstand Meadowbank Park, Dorking Sunday 23rd August 2–4.30 p.m. Leith Hill Place, Surrey (National Trust)
Sunday 6th September 2–4.30 p.m. Leith Hill Place, Surrey (National Trust)
May Day, the first day of the month, was once second only to Christmas in popularity. Probably the first ‘tradition’ we associate with May is maypole dancing and conjuring up images of children dancing round the maypole holding different coloured ribbons and weaving in and out making pretty patterns as the dancing progressed. I myself can remember in the playground at infants school back in the ’50s doing just that. This type of maypole dancing has only been around for less than two hundred years and has the air of official culture rather than genuine folk tradition. It has little in common with the English maypole as it has existed since the late Middle Ages. Some sources believe it was an ancient fertility emblem associated with the beginning of summer. In the early morning, young people of the village would go to the forest and cut down a tall, young tree, remove most branches and drag it to the village and set it up on the village green. It was then brightly painted and decorated with garlands, rosettes, herbs and hanging ribbons and became the focal point for dancing and other celebrations. Some parishes had standing maypoles and these would be repainted and decorated each year until the bases rotted and a new maypole would be brought into the village to replace it. These standing maypoles were usually very tall and could be up to 100 feet in height. The Church of St. Andrew Undershaft in Leadenhall Street, London, was so named because the great Maypole, which annually stood before the south door, was taller than the church itself. In 1517 the London apprentices attacked alien traders and the pole was pulled down in the ensuing riot. It hung for many years under the eaves of houses on one side of Shaft Alley, until in 1552 a firebrand curate denounced it as an idol and stirred up the people so much with his sermon that the pole was subsequently cut up for firewood. The Puritans hated maypoles as they were associated with paganism and immorality. In 1644 maypoles were banned throughout England and Wales. They came back with return of King Charles II. On the first May Day of his reign an immense maypole was set up in the Strand on the site now occupied by the island-church of St-Mary-le-Strand. It was 134 feet high and stood for nearly 50 years.
For at least 200 years it was believed that bathing the face in dew early on May Day was excellent for the complexion, and Samuel Pepys in his diary records the occasion of his wife gathering May dew. I didn’t get up early enough to avail myself of the curative benefits of the morning dew but last year I did manage to film this video on the 1st as my contribution to May Day celebrations. The song is ‘Hal-an-Tow’ which is sung on the occasion of the Helston Furry Dance held on the 8th of May. One of the few benefits of getting old is that you have no shame! What was embarrassing, though, was that I didn’t realise till after I had finished that there was a wildlife camera strapped to a tree facing the clearing. Someone was going to have a shock when they checked the footage for passing fauna and instead got the rare sight of a Great Spotted Loony! For those of a nervous disposition, look away now! Otherwise, look here<\a>!
(My thanks in research to these excellent books: The English Year by the folklorist Steve Roud,
A Dictionary of British Folk Customs by Christina Hole, A Treasury of British Folklore by Dee Dee Chainey and Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain by the Reader’s Digest.)
All text, images and music samples on this site are copyright © Childe Rolande.
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Poster for Lucy Anna Martin
(click to watch the video)