May Day traditions – from bathing in morning dew to jumping from Oxford’s Magdalen Bridge and dancing round a maypole

MAY Day celebrations are held on the first of the month every year with its traditions dating back hundreds of years.

The day is meant to coincide with the arrival of warmer weather and longer days, with the earliest records of a spring festival dating back to Ancient Egyptian times.

May Day is traditionally a Pagan festival, Belthane, which says goodbye to winter and marks the beginning of summer.

And although summer doesn't properly begin until June, May Day marks the beginning of the season.

Around the UK village fetes, festivals, celebrations and community gatherings usually take place to mark the occasion.

A tradition which fallen out of favour, May baskets containing sweets or flowers were anonymously left on neighbours doorsteps.

Dancing round a maypole

This one of the most recognisable activities associated with May Day, and is still popular today.

It involves a tall wooden pole being set up – usually in a park or village green – which has numerous colourful ribbons attached to it.

Holding the end of a ribbon each, people dance around maypole causing the ribbons to become entwined, before reversing their steps and detangling them.

The May Queen will also be crowned, often chosen from local schoolgirls, and is done in homage to the Roman goddess Flora.

Bathing in morning dew

Some of the oldest May Day traditions relate to morning dew, with folklore suggesting anyone who ‘bathed’ in it would have beautiful complexion for the following year.

Bathing, or rolling around in the dew, would bring flawless skin and protect the person from freckles, sunburn, wrinkles, pimples and spots.

It was also said to cure headaches and give the washer a dewy-eyed complexion in the morning, even with little sleep.

A traditional rhyme claimed that “a maid who rises early on May morning and washed in the dew from the hawthorn tree, will ever be handsome be.”

Men who washed their hands in the dew were said to be gain skills in tying knots and operating locks.

Jumping from Oxford's Magdalen Bridge

Oxford has its own unique celebrations, where for the past 500 years people gather outside Magdalen College from around 6am to celebrate the spring festival.

The early-morning May ritual saw thousands turn out to listen to Magdalen College Choir sing hymns from the college's Great Tower.

Last year a record-breaking 27,000 people attended to enjoy the early-morning festivities.

But the uni town has also seen people - often students - jump off the Magdalen Bridge into the River Cherwell.

Previously people have broken through safety barriers to jump into the water below, and the trend has seen its fair share of accidents over the years, but no one is thought to have jumped since 2010.

Morris Dancing

Another typically British tradition, Morris Dancing is often seen at May Day celebrations.

Getting its name from 13^th century Moorish, or Moresco dancers, it involves people dressed in white shirts and colourful ribbons with bells on their shins.

The folk dance sees choreographed steps with dancers clashing wooden sticks together.

Bank Holiday

Dating back to the 19^th century, the date was used to celebrate International Workers' Day, most commonly supported and promoted by socialist and communist groups.

It was used to commemorate the Haymarket affair, a bombing of a labour demonstration in Chicago in 1886, where seven police officers and four workers were killed.

In the second half of the 20^th century, the day became associated with a day off work.

While May 1 itself is not a bank holiday, the first Monday following that date is declared a national holiday.