What is May Day? The holiday weekend in Jane Austen's time

Who doesn't love a bank holiday? There's nothing like getting to skip out on the Sunday scaries and turn off the Monday morning alarm. Here in Jane Austen's England, the first Monday in May is the May Day bank holiday. It's the first holiday of the year where you can reasonably hope for sunshine, and many councils and committees will plan outdoor community events for this one. It's also one of our oldest holidays. But what was it like in Jane Austen's time? And what can the changing face of this holiday tell us about life in the British countryside?

Pagan origins

The significance of the 1st of May has its origins in the pagan holiday of 'Beltane', when communities would celebrate the coming of Spring by lighting bonfires on hilltops. It's easy to see why we are so naturally inclined to celebrate at this time of year -- with flowers and fruit returning in abundance, it's an opportunity to recognise that the fallow season is over. Pagan rites and rituals retained popularity in Britain even after Christianity came to dominate the religious landscape, especially in the countryside. It is uncertain when maypole traditions in Britain, which involve festooning a wooden pole with flowers and dancing around it, began, but we know from a Welsh poem that maypoles were present by the mid-fourteenth century. Chaucer also mentions them.

Puritan proscription and Restoration

When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans took over parliament in 1644, May Day traditions were banned for having far too much Pagan flavour, though there is reason to suspect that these proscriptions may never have reached the more rural outposts of the nation. When Charles II was reinstated to the crown, he reestablished the holiday, which would remain popular up until Jane Austen's lifetime.

In Austen's lifetime

May Day traditions would have been well intact during Jane Austen's lifetime, with many of the old rituals persisting. This would have included erecting a maypole, and also other traditions like crowning a May Queen and making a village girl the centrepiece of the day.

Particularly popular during the Regency was the inclusion of the 'Jack o' the Green' figure, an impish man clad all in green and leaves. He would be followed around by the village milkmaids and, in London, the chimney sweeps. It happens that May 1st is also Chimney Sweeps' Day, as it was the only day the sweeps, many of them young boys, would get as a holiday all year. This feels almost like a hint of the important place May 1st would later take in the world of work and labour rights.

Burgeoning city life

May Day traditions began to wane in popularity throughout Jane Austen's lifetime, and though she may have seen many smaller towns marking the day, during her city-dwelling days, she might have felt the lack of observance. In London, especially, interest in the holiday waned as industry gained pace and those who lived in the country moved to the city looking for work.

During the Victorian period, however, interest in old British traditions was revived, and May Day found its place once more in our calendar.

Workers' rights

The association between May Day and workers' rights would not come until later in the century, when Labour movements in the USA started campaigning to reduce the length of the working day to eight hours. A mass strike was organised in 1886, with half a million workers joining the protest. In 1889, the Second International designated the 1st of May as a day to celebrate the worker.

It became particularly important in the Soviet Union, which saw the holiday as an opportunity to reinforce the Communist movement's opposition to Western Capitalism. This led the US government to place their Labor Day in September, to avoid associations with Soviet politics.

In the UK, the May Day Bank Holiday was instituted in 1978 by the Labour Employment Secretary, Michael Foot. This drew criticism from those who were sceptical of the socialist connotations of the holiday, despite its centuries-long history of observance in the country. Still, many choose to observe International Workers' Day on this date, taking advantage of the day off work to stage protests and champion causes.

What does this say about the Brits?

The shifting cultural observance of May Day over the years could be said to chart our changing political and social priorities. The holiday started as a way of simply acknowledging the changing seasons and morphed over time, first being outlawed by a government with a religious agenda, then reinstated by the crown; then waning again with industrialisation and the move from the country to the city; then back to popularity with the Victorian revival; and finally becoming a symbol of resistance and protest over the last century.

What, then, does the holiday mean to us now? Does it still have the same sociopolitical weight as it did in the past, or is it simply a chance to enjoy a beer in the sunshine?

Sources:

https://regencyfictionwriters.org/may-day-traditions/

https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/232/mode/2up

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/the-history-of-may-day

https://mr-soot.com/2017/05/01/why-may-1st-is-chimney-sweeps-day/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/May-Day-international-observance

Ellen White is editor of the Jane Austen blog. If you would like to contribute to the blog, she would love to hear from you. Follow this link for more details.