Sara Maitland
Most modern May ‘traditions’ are far removed from earlier, earthier spring fertility rites
We seem to be experiencing a resurgence of ‘traditional’ rural celebrations, and May Day is at the centre of this trend, with maypoles and Morris dancing and May Queens, and – in the more Celtic regions – Beltane fires and other rituals. The popularity of these events has become so great that Kingsbury Episcopi, a small village in the Somerset Levels, has had to cancel its May Festival for 2017, which in the past has attracted crowds of 5,000, because the number of visitors has created safety issues.
I have used the word traditional in inverted commas because a great many – most – of these events, although billing themselves as very ancient, are revivals or even reinventions.
We know, of course, that these spring celebrations did happen. There are references to Morris dancing as early as 1448, although always in relation to the Court or the Lord Mayor of London. It does not seem to have been danced in rural parishes before the 17th century.
Dancing round trees, or poles representing them, has a better claim to great antiquity. In Joan of Arc’s trial in 1431, the judges raised the tradition, implying it was superstitious and possibly pagan; but they abandoned that line of attack when they realised that all the village children did it. It seems to have been a panEuropean tradition. However the elaborate weaving or plaiting of ribbons seems to have been introduced in the late 19th century through the ‘merrie England’ movement.
NEW TRADITIONS
Revivals and renewals are perhaps inevitable, because the loss of these traditions for various reasons is also inevitable. From 1649 to 1660 all such festivities were forbidden by the puritan Commonwealth and were only revived when Charles 11 was restored to the throne.
The massive urbanisation of 19th-century Britain destroyed so much rural culture and, despite attempts at some sort of revival at the end of that century, the decline continued well into the second half of the 20th century.
Now the rural ‘traditions’ business is booming. But the ‘traditions’ need their inverted commas. For one thing, people’s increasing prosperity and mobility have created spectators in place of participants. In this sense, one of the few remaining genuine folk traditions is the Scottish Hogmanay singing of Auld
Lang Syne; everyone sings and dances, rather than watching others perform, and since Burn’s poem was only written in 1788 (though the tune is older) it has little claim on pre-historic fertility cults or solstice festivals. Kingsbury Episcopi in Somerset has fewer than 1,500 inhabitants, so who are these 5,000 visitors turning up for the May Festival? They are certainly not a community gathering to encourage the crops, reassert their ancient roots and confirm their historic common identity.
Perhaps too many of us are mawkishly sentimental about a slightly bogus idea of rural tradition; perhaps as religious faith declines, people need this sort of event as a substitute. Perhaps they are all just looking for a good day out – and there is nothing wrong with that at all – except that the modern versions get entangled in health and safety rules, unecological car miles and – let’s face it – are distinctly prissy.
In the town of Kuldiga, Latvia, people mark May Day by running naked through the streets at 3am. Now how about ‘reviving’ that? Have your say What do you think about the issues raised here? Write to the address on page 3 or email editor@countryfile.com