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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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May Day
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All primitive societies at any distance from the equator are likely to have held a spring festival to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness, and this event became stabilized on May 1 (some ten days after the equinox) in the regions of northwest Europe. The earliest known British tradition of this kind was the *Beltane of the Celts. The present-day central feature, the maypole, is believed to have arrived with the Anglo-Saxons. By the Middle Ages the festivities included *morris dancing and a bawdy May King, often linked with *Robin Hood.
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The link betweeen May Day and Socialism derives from its adoption as a workers' holiday by the *Second International in Paris in 1889. In Britain May Day was introduced as an extra *bank holiday in 1978.
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These robust revelries came to an end in the 16–17C under *Puritan influence, and their revival in a more genteel form was part of 19C medievalism. In modern village celebrations (usually on the first Saturday in May) the shy May Queen is a schoolgirl, and the lacing of the maypole with ribbons attached to its top is a well-rehearsed routine. Traces of wilder origins survive in the hobby horses of *Minehead and *Padstow. By contrast an entirely calm start to the day is provided in the May Singing on Magdalen College tower in Oxford; in a tradition of disputed origin but dating back to least the 17C, the college choir greets the dawn of May with madrigals and a Latin hymn.
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