50 Fun Facts About May Day

May Day, 1 May, falls roughly halfway between which two astronomical points of the Northern Hemisphere year?

Halfway between the spring equinox and midsummer solstice is why old European festivals treated May Day as the first day of summer, not mid-spring.

Saint Walpurga, after whom Walpurgis Night is named, was born in which country?

Walpurga was born in Wessex, England, around 710 and went to Germany as a missionary, becoming abbess of Heidenheim; her canonisation on 1 May gave Walpurgis Night its name.

At Beltane on 1 May, cattle were driven between two bonfires before being sent where?

At Beltane, cattle were driven between two bonfires for protection before being sent to summer pastures; people also walked between the fires or leapt the embers for luck.

Walpurgis Night on 30 April commemorates the canonisation of Saint Walpurga in which year?

Walpurga was canonised on 1 May 870 by Pope Adrian II, the same day her relics were moved to Eichstätt, where pilgrims collect vials of 'Saint Walpurga's oil' from her tomb.

In parts of Europe, bonfires are lit on Walpurgis Night to ward off what?

Saint Walpurga was invoked against 'pest, rabies, and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft'.

Which of these is a traditional May Day custom in England?

The Queen of May was often given a male companion decked head to toe in greenery.

The earliest records of maypole celebrations in Britain date from which century?

The earliest British record is a mid-14th-century Welsh poem by Gruffudd ap Adda ap Dafydd describing a maypole at Llanidloes; by the 1580s Philip Stubbes described poles hauled by forty yoke of oxen.

Who banned May Day celebrations in England during the Interregnum, before Charles II restored them?

The Long Parliament's 1644 ordinance called maypoles 'a Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness'.

Which scientist obtained a felled Strand maypole to mount a giant telescope at Wanstead, Essex?

Isaac Newton, as Royal Society president, procured the old Strand maypole for James Pound at Wanstead to carry the 123-foot object glass Huygens had left to the Society.

On May Morning in Oxford, crowds gather at 6 a.m. beneath the tower of which college to hear its choir sing?

Magdalen College Choir sings the Hymnus Eucharisticus from the tower top; students used to jump off Magdalen Bridge into the Cherwell until it was closed on May Morning.

Morris dancing is first mentioned in a 1448 record of a payment by which London livery company?

The Goldsmiths' Company paid seven shillings to Morris dancers in 1448, the earliest known English record; the name probably comes from 'morisco', meaning Moorish, and dancers wear bells on their legs.

Padstow in Cornwall celebrates May Day with two 'Obby 'Osses; what are they stylised depictions of?

Padstow's two 'Obby 'Osses are stylised horses: the 'Old' and 'Blue Ribbon' 'Osses parade all day and meet at the maypole in the evening before 'dying' until next May Eve.

By the 19th century, the May Day figure Jack in the Green was chiefly associated with which trade?

Chimney sweeps made Jack in the Green their own in the 19th century, parading the leaf-covered figure to collect money on May Day; the custom grew out of 17th-century milkmaids' flower-decked garland processions.

On 1 May 1515, Henry VIII's royal guard appeared at a woodland breakfast disguised as whom?

Henry VIII's guard, dressed in green as Robin Hood and his men, met the king and Catherine of Aragon at Shooter's Hill after the ride from Greenwich Palace and served them a venison breakfast.

In France it is traditional to give a sprig of which flower on 1 May, a custom traced to King Charles IX?

Lily of the valley was given to Charles IX as a lucky charm in 1561, and he began presenting sprigs to the ladies of the court each year.

In France, labour groups and private sellers may sell the 1 May flower without paying what?

France tolerates tax-free street sales of lily of the valley on 1 May only, so unions and private sellers pay no sales tax that day; the plant itself is highly poisonous.

In the German Rhineland, what does a young man deliver overnight to a girl's house for 1 May?

A small maypole wrapped in coloured streamers is set up overnight at the girl's house; a tree wrapped only in white streamers signals dislike, and in leap years the women do the delivering.

Germany's Walpurgisnacht celebrations are traditionally strongest in which mountain range?

The Harz Mountains host the biggest celebrations, with bonfires and the wrapping of a Maibaum; the night's motto is 'Tanz in den Mai', dance into May.

In Sweden and Swedish-speaking Finland, the maypole is raised not on May Day but at which festival?

Swedes raise the pole at Midsummer and call it a midsommarstång; the Swedish verb 'maja' means to dress or decorate with greenery, not the month of May.

Finland's Walpurgis carnival, Vappu, traditionally centres on drinking which homemade fermented drink?

Sima, a homemade lightly fermented lemon mead, is the traditional Vappu drink, served with funnel cakes called tippaleipä during Finland's 1 May carnival.

In the Czech Republic, May Day is a holiday of love; what do couples do on 1 May?

Couples kiss under a blossoming tree, traditionally a cherry, so the woman stays healthy and beautiful for the year; May is regarded in the Czech Republic as the month of love.

Bulgaria's May Day festival of Irminden involves rituals to protect people from what?

Irminden rituals guard against snakes and lizards, believed to come out on 1 May; the name comes from the prophet Jeremiah, though the roots are almost certainly pagan.

In Ireland, a Bealtaine May Bush was traditionally a thorn bush decked with blossoms, ribbons and what?

The May Bush, usually a hawthorn, was decked with blossoms, ribbons and bright shells; household fires were doused and relit from the communal Bealtaine bonfire.

Edinburgh's modern Beltane Fire Festival, started in 1988, is held at which spot in the city?

The festival has been staged on Calton Hill since its first night in 1988, reviving Beltane customs that older Edinburgh tradition kept on Arthur's Seat.

Which Welsh name for 1 May means 'first of summer'?

Calan Haf, 'first of summer', is the Welsh May Day, also called Calan Mai; on its eve bonfires were lit as at the Irish and Scottish Beltane.

In Hawaii, 1 May is celebrated as what?

Lei Day was proposed by poet Don Blanding, first celebrated in Honolulu, and made an official Hawaii holiday in 1929.

Which fading American May Day custom involved leaving small containers of sweets or blossoms on doorsteps?

May baskets of sweets or flowers were hung on a neighbour's door anonymously, the giver knocking and running away; European settlers brought the tradition with them.

International Workers' Day commemorates an 1886 strike and bombing in which American city?

The Haymarket affair took place in Chicago on 4 May 1886, at a rally called after police had killed strikers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company the day before.

The 1886 strike that led to the Haymarket affair was demanding what?

Australian stonemasons in Victoria had won the eight-hour day back in 1856, inspiring the American campaign.

What was thrown at police at the Haymarket rally on 4 May 1886?

A dynamite bomb was thrown at police as they moved to break up the rally; seven officers and at least four civilians died in the blast and the gunfire that followed.

How many anarchists were charged with the Haymarket bombing?

Eight anarchists were tried for conspiracy; only two were at the square when the bomb went off, and four of the eight were hanged on 11 November 1887.

Which Illinois governor pardoned the surviving Haymarket defendants in 1893 and criticised the trial?

John Peter Altgeld pardoned Fielden, Neebe and Schwab on 26 June 1893, calling the trial unfair and the judge biased, a decision that cost him heavily when he sought re-election in 1896.

Which 1889 gathering in Paris chose 1 May as a worldwide day of worker demonstrations?

The founding congress of the Second International, held in Paris in July 1889, called for demonstrations on 1 May 1890, which went ahead that day across the US and most of Europe.

Instead of 1 May, the United States and Canada hold their Labor Day on which date, a US federal holiday since 1894?

The first Monday in September became a US federal holiday in 1894, by which time thirty states already observed it.

During the Cold War, 1 May was marked in Moscow with military parades through which location?

Red Square hosted the May Day parades, with Politburo members watching from the top of Lenin's Mausoleum; the military element was dropped after 1968, leaving workers' demonstrations.

In 1955 Pope Pius XII placed a new feast on 1 May to counter communist May Day; whom does it honour?

Saint Joseph the Worker, the carpenter husband of Mary and patron of workers, was given the 1 May feast by Pius XII in 1955 as a Christian answer to the communist holiday.

Loyalty Day, the United States' 1 May observance, was created in 1921 under what original name?

Americanization Day was launched in 1921 as a counter to the communist May Day during the First Red Scare; renamed Loyalty Day, it was made an annual observance by Congress under Eisenhower in 1958.

South Africa first celebrated Workers' Day as a national holiday on 1 May of which year?

The Public Holidays Act of 1994, passed after the first democratic elections, took effect on 1 January 1995, making 1 May 1995 the first statutory Workers' Day; COSATU had demanded it in 1986.

England's early May bank holiday, on the first Monday of the month, was created in which year?

The early May bank holiday was first held in 1978, introduced by the Callaghan Labour government on a proposal from Michael Foot; 1 May itself is a holiday only when it falls on that Monday.

The distress call 'mayday' was coined in the early 1920s by the radio officer at which airport?

Frederick Stanley Mockford, senior radio officer at Croydon Airport, proposed 'mayday' in 1923 as a distress word that pilots and ground staff at both Croydon and Le Bourget would understand.

'Mayday' is the phonetic equivalent of a phrase in which language?

French m'aider, 'help me', is what it approximates; the properly conjugated phrase would be aidez-moi.

By convention, how many repetitions of 'mayday' open a distress call?

A distress call opens with 'mayday' spoken three times so it cannot be mistaken for noise or other traffic; a lesser emergency such as engine trouble uses 'pan-pan' instead.

In which year did the International Radiotelegraph Convention adopt 'mayday' as the official voice distress call?

The 1927 International Radiotelegraph Convention in Washington made 'mayday' the official spoken distress call, sitting alongside SOS, which remained the Morse-code signal.

On Protomagia, 1 May, what do Greek families traditionally hang on the front door?

Greek families gather wildflowers on 1 May and weave them into a wreath of flowers hung on the door or balcony, often kept until it is burned on the Midsummer bonfires of St John.

Italy's May Day spring feast is called what?

Calendimaggio survives in Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna as a seasonal feast celebrating spring's arrival.

An Edinburgh tradition says young women gain lifelong beauty by climbing Arthur's Seat on May morning to do what?

In Ireland, Bealtaine dew was likewise thought to bring beauty and keep you young.

Which Gaelic festival, opposite Beltane in the year, marked the start of winter on 1 November?

Samhain, on 1 November, opened the dark half of the Gaelic year as Beltane on 1 May opened the light half; Imbolc and Lughnasadh fell at the other two quarter points.

At Vappu, students crown the Havis Amanda statue with a white cap in which Finnish city?

The Havis Amanda fountain statue in Helsinki's Market Square is capped with a student's white cap at 6 pm on 30 April to open the Vappu celebrations.

Why was the UK's early May bank holiday moved to 8 May in 1995 and 2020?

Both moves marked VE Day anniversaries: the 50th in 1995 and the 75th in 2020, when the holiday fell on Friday 8 May instead of the usual Monday.

Under Bavarian custom, what happens to a village maypole in the days or weeks before it is raised on 1 May?

It is stored in a barn and guarded from thieves, then raised painted in the Bavarian white and blue and hung with emblems of local trades.