May Day

May Day
May 1, has been known as “May Day”. It is when people celebrate the beginning of warmer weather and the blossom of flowers and trees.
In the past, May Day was celebrated through manytraditions. The most popular activities were: decorating houses with flowers and greenery, in order to ask the vegetation spirits to bring good fortune. Washing girls’ faces in a special point of the townearly in the morning, they thought that doing this they would become more beautiful. The May Day lifting, where a bunch of young men lift a pretty woman in a chair decorated with flowers. Thespotlight of the day was the crowning of the May Queen, where a young woman was chosen as the human replica of Flora. This tradition is still celebrated.
Nowadays there are four main traditions that arecelebrated in May Day, the May Queen crowning, the Maypole dancing, the Morris dancing and the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss.
The maypole dancing is made to establish the arrival of summer. People, mostly primarystudents, celebrate dancing around tree poles decorated with flowers and garlands on top. This is a very beautiful show because with the dancing, children put colored ribbons around the pole.
TheMorris dancing is a traditional folkdance performed by men and women. This dance came from the Moors of North Africa and now people paint their faces black. There are different kinds of costumesdepending on which part of the country Morris dancers will perform. Often they dress in white with coloured belts.
The Padstow 'Obby 'Oss is a celebration which starts outside the Golden Lion Inn atmidnight, where lots of people go to see two famous Hobby horses, the Old Oss and the Blue Ribbon Oss. During the day Junior Osses operated by children appear dancing and singing through the town.Meanwhile, the town is being decorated with bluebells, forget-me-nots and cowslips.
Since 1978, because of the large quantity of celebrations that are in the month, most of May Day activities have been...