May Day

Those who are more recent residents of Oxford or visitors to the city centre may have found themselves slightly confused today by seeing quite so many Morris dancers, people wearing flower garlands, and perhaps even encounter with a walking-bush making its way down the High Street!

May Day festivities likely originated during the Dark Ages when the feast of 'Beltane' marked the appearance of longer and warmer days, and brought with it the promise of spring, summer, and the earth's seasonal renewal. This was a time of great promise, of new beginnings and of hope for the harvest to come at the end of the season. It is also tied to the appearance of the figure of the Green Man as a pagan representation of fertility and fruitfulness, and depictions of the Green Man can still be found across the country; eventually adopted as decoration in many churches to help translate the joy of resurrection and new life for those converting to Christianity from paganism.

The Church has had a variously antagonistic relationship with May Day over the centuries, not least with the temporarily outlawed practice of maypole dancing and its associated revelry. Yet, despite the feast's pagan origins, Christianity has a place at the very centre of the celebrations in Oxford today as crowds gather to hear the choir of Magdalen College sing Hymnus Eucharisticus from their tower, as it has done for several hundred years. If one is going to give a visible (and audible) demonstration of faith in the season of Easter, it seems that this is an excellent platform to do so as, in the words of Henry Blackaby, so much of discerning God's will and sharing our faith is simply 'watching to see where God is already working and being prepared to join him'...perhaps even at an un-godly hour on May Day morning.