{"id":758,"date":"2020-01-25T11:39:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T11:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/?page_id=758"},"modified":"2022-11-02T12:26:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T12:26:32","slug":"may-day-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day Celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For centuries May Day and the turning of the year from the dark half to the warmer light half was celebrated all over the country in many colourful ways. Usually involving music and dance, many of these traditions used symbols of the new greenery and flowers that appeared at this time of year; others more clearly alluded to death and rebirth and the cycle of life that mirrors the yearly cycle of the seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s origins include:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-661x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-763\" width=\"431\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-661x1024.jpg 661w, http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-194x300.jpg 194w, http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-768x1189.jpg 768w, http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40.jpg 864w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 431px) 100vw, 431px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Floralia (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/floralia-112636\" target=\"_blank\">Floralia<\/a>: the festival of Flora the Roman goddess of flowers, held from 27 April \u2013 3 May.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Walpurgus Night (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ancient-origins.net\/history-ancient-traditions\/walpurgis-night-0010965\" target=\"_blank\">Walpurgus Night<\/a>: celebrated across northern and central Europe on Saint Walpurga&#8217;s Eve to protect people from witchcraft by lighting bonfires on Saint Walpurga&#8217;s Eve to ward of evil spirits and witches.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Belatane (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Beltane\" target=\"_blank\">Beltane<\/a> is the Gaelic festival held on 1st May to bless and protect cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth.\u00a0 It involved bonfires, properties decorated with May flowers and the creation of a May Bush decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rushlights.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Crowning of Mary (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mythologymatters.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/28\/may-day-myth-and-ritual-the-virgin-mary-as-the-may-queen\/\" target=\"_blank\">Crowning of Mary<\/a>: Since the 18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May Day by devotions to the Virgin Mary<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"devotions to the Virgin Mary  (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mythologymatters.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/28\/may-day-myth-and-ritual-the-virgin-mary-as-the-may-queen\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>with her statues often crowned with flowers. This seems to be a Christian adoption off the much earlier tradition of the May Queen which itself may derive form Floralia (above).<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"May Fairs (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.historic-uk.com\/CultureUK\/May-Day-Celebrations\/\" target=\"_blank\">May Fairs<\/a> have been held across Europe since time immemorial, often involving the crowning of a flower bedecked May Queen (the human replica of Flora), usually  a young maiden and so perhaps a reflection of the birth of summer.  <\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Maypole dancing (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2018\/05\/01\/maypole-people-dance-round-7511723\/\" target=\"_blank\">Maypole dancing<\/a> is probably the best known tradition involving children and the tradition is continued here in The Christchurch School May Fair every year.<\/li><li>In some parts of Britain, May 1st is called Garland Day.\u00a0<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Well dressing (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.historic-uk.com\/CultureUK\/Well-Dressing\/\" target=\"_blank\">Well dressing<\/a>, also known as\u00a0well flowering, is a tradition practised in some parts of rural England in which wells, springs and other water sources are decorated with designs created from flower petals. Although not a May Day activity it usually starts in May and once again flowery decoration is the norm.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a day of transition with an interesting co-incidence of beginnings (involving birth and flowers) and ends (involving death and fires).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently May Day has become a workers&#8217; public holiday and has been revived by pagans as a new festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Green Man Festival isn&#8217;t a revival or reconstruction of any particular lost tradition, but a new event drawing on some of these older customs and including many current ones. The result is a modern May Day celebration for the current times but still enjoying the spectacle and energy of those older festivities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For centuries May Day and the turning of the year from the dark half to the warmer light half was celebrated all over the country in many colourful ways. Usually involving music and dance, many<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-758","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For centuries May Day and the turning of the year from the dark half to the warmer light half was celebrated all over the country in many colourful ways. Usually involving music and dance, many\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BoAGreenManFest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-02T12:26:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-661x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BoADayofDance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/\",\"name\":\"May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-25T11:39:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-02T12:26:32+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"May Day Celebrations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/\",\"name\":\"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\",\"description\":\"The Family Friendly Community Festival of Traditional Dance, Music, Song &amp; Folklore - Sat 9th May 2026\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Logo-1-small-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Logo-1-small-1.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":2305,\"caption\":\"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BoAGreenManFest\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoADayofDance\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boagreenmanfest\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","og_description":"For centuries May Day and the turning of the year from the dark half to the warmer light half was celebrated all over the country in many colourful ways. Usually involving music and dance, many","og_url":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/","og_site_name":"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BoAGreenManFest\/","article_modified_time":"2022-11-02T12:26:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Screenshot-2020-01-25-at-12.05.40-661x1024.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@BoADayofDance","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/","url":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/","name":"May Day Celebrations - Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-25T11:39:29+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-02T12:26:32+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/may-day-celebrations\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"May Day Celebrations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#website","url":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/","name":"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","description":"The Family Friendly Community Festival of Traditional Dance, Music, Song &amp; Folklore - Sat 9th May 2026","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#organization","name":"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival","url":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Logo-1-small-1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Logo-1-small-1.jpg","width":1800,"height":2305,"caption":"Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BoAGreenManFest\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoADayofDance","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boagreenmanfest\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2974,"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions\/2974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boagreenmanfest.org\/welcome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}