This post is now complete with all the photos restored! If there were no pictures last time you looked, try again now and see some wonderful young people carrying on a very old tradition.
Mayday has been a holiday in Britain since 1978 when it was introduced as a bank holiday and celebration of the workers of this country; however, Mayday had been celebrated for many hundreds of years before then. It may have started as a spring or early summer festival going back thousands of years and involves the crowing of a May Queen and dancing round a Maypole, the symbolism of which is pretty obvious. There are many other local rituals and traditions, for example Morris men, dancing, fairs and celebrations.
I attended Milton Road Junior School in Cambridge and I was crowned May Queen, in a wonderful pageant I shall describe later.In May Day this year, 2012 I attended Eel Day Fair in the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire and watched some young people performing traditional Maypole dancing with great skill!
It is marvellous that this tradition is still kept alive, part of our heritage!
Lois Elsden 