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Author Topic: May Day Morning  (Read 9393 times)

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Mike Hirst

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #40 on: May 01, 2012, 06:07:19 PM »

“Hooray, hooray, the first of May, outdoor sex begins today.” (anon)
Unlikely here last night, with torrential rain and a thunderstorm as midnight broke. 

Comment about the first Clap of midnight (or May) would seem salacious , we'll keep them to the 'groupie' thread, shall we?

According to Nora Chadwick, in Celtic Ireland "Beltine (or Beltaine) was celebrated on 1 May, a spring-time festival of optimism". This would certainly resonate with the misplaced yearnings of elderly melodeonista's expressed in the above mentioned "groupies" thread.
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pikey

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #41 on: May 01, 2012, 09:10:28 PM »


Quote
I also note that the recording of the signing was recorded by one of my predecessors "The contemporary, but unreliable chronicler, Roger of Wendover"

Lester of Wendover

Reminds me of the phrase,

" Bend over,Wendover!"  - Yaroo!  Ouch!!
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pikey

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #42 on: May 01, 2012, 09:12:23 PM »

“Hooray, hooray, the first of May, outdoor sex begins today.” (anon)

Apparently it happens all year round in certain parts around Sheffield.....  (melodeon playing, of course)
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ganderbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #43 on: May 02, 2012, 10:56:10 PM »

How recent is this 'May Day' thing? Morris was AFAIK always done at Whitsun, albeit Headington Men were out on the scrounge when C# met them on Boxing Day.

Here in Wirral, Mersey Morris did their 1st first May in about 1992.  New squire set it up in the pub previous year.  I got to do our Press releases,  and by '94 the Liverpool Echo was more or less referring to us "as mentioned in the Doomsday Book"   ???

Recommended method of publicity btw - send it in neatly typed double spaced and they more or less print it off wholesale. And there is still time. ;)  Mind you, no press hack was ever going to get up at 5am to photograph us!

But who started this?

Apparantly the first record of morris dancing on Mayday was in Oxford in 1923. Magdalen College have a tradition which goes back to the 15th century whereby the college choir sing from the top of the bell tower to welcome the summer, and in 1923 the Oxford Morris Men decided to join in.
Mayday was widely and enthusiastically celebrated in towns and villages everywhere until 1664, at which point maypoles were banned by the Puritans on the grounds of profanity. Morris dancing may well have been done during the festivities, and they may well have danced at dawn, but it would have been part of a big celebration and not just a morris thing.

Dancing up the dawn as we know it is almost certainly something that started with the morris revival in the early 1970's or thereabouts, as part of the desire to portray morris dancing as a pagan custom, and (as with Mersey Morris) was probably thought up in the pub. :M :|glug :|glug

But that doesn't help us find out who is responsible for making us get up in the rain at 4.30 in the morning.....
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Pauline from Cornwall

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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #44 on: May 04, 2012, 07:50:05 PM »

Funnily enough, at practise last week I was chatting about those that emerge at sparrow fart to dance......
one of our musicians in Oxford born, and also said the same as Ganderbox.
Why do some feel the need to link everything with paganism? ...... it reminds me of those  victorian 'collectors' who roamed Dartmoor. some collected songs ( Baring Gould ) which was fine, but others went and dug up neolithic sites, stuck iron ladders all over tors and generally named every rock Druid-this and Druid-that. Grrrrrr
Why?????
Ahem..... think I need a calming cup of tea!
cheers
Q
 
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Thrupenny Bit

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Tom

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #45 on: May 04, 2012, 08:23:33 PM »

we dance the sun up because we've been doing it so long we're worried it might not come up if we don't......
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #46 on: May 04, 2012, 10:06:38 PM »

 ;D
mind you with the weather of the last month, it must come up then go hide!
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

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ganderbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #47 on: May 05, 2012, 03:38:08 PM »

At 5.30am I was up on Dartmoor, dancing with Catseye and Dartmoor Border, in the grey drizzle that was the tail end of the deluges we'd had over the previous two days. By the time we finished breakfast it was brightening up, by lunchtime I was walking up near Great Links Tor in the scorching sunshine, and it's been glorious ever since.
Somebody in the pub last night expressed their gratitude to us for dancing up the dawn and bringing back the sun - made it all worthwhile. (I think)   :M :M
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Mike Averill

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #48 on: May 05, 2012, 06:01:45 PM »

Bloomin Cornish , stealing our English sun. nothing but grey and rain here.
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malcolmbebb

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #49 on: May 05, 2012, 06:44:02 PM »

Bloomin Cornish , stealing our English sun. nothing but grey and rain here.
I was in Salisbury, to see the Queen - brilliant, warm sunshine all afternoon.

But now back at home, cold, grey and windy. And as for the weather...
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Dino BPII.
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Morrisbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #50 on: May 05, 2012, 07:27:22 PM »

Quote
I was in Salisbury, to see the Queen - brilliant, warm sunshine all afternoon.

We were dancing in the morning as part of the Queens celebrations in the Cathedral Close and it was horribly wet and cold.  Annoyingly, as you say, it was lovely in the afternoon!
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malcolmbebb

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #51 on: May 05, 2012, 07:43:28 PM »

Quote
I was in Salisbury, to see the Queen - brilliant, warm sunshine all afternoon.

We were dancing in the morning as part of the Queens celebrations in the Cathedral Close and it was horribly wet and cold.  Annoyingly, as you say, it was lovely in the afternoon!

Not annoying for me - with Bathampton   ;D Then I went on to have a pleasant meal and beer in the sunshine by the canal in Bradford on Avon, finishing off with a dance or two in Bathampton village.

Thought Sarum had b*gg*r*d off by lunchtime, I only saw one dancer.
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Dino BPII.
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Morrisbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #52 on: May 05, 2012, 08:10:47 PM »

Quote
Thought Sarum had b*gg*r*d off by lunchtime, I only saw one dancer.

Most of us had changed into dry clothes so were not recognisable.
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #53 on: May 06, 2012, 09:52:58 AM »

We danced yesterday at the Lustleigh Mayday, where the children and villagers process around Lustleigh, a beautiful village on the edge of the moor. They then get blessed on the steps of the church by the vicar then retire to the Orchard ( community field ) to dance around the maypole. We danced to fill in the gaps when the procession was walking around. It was really quite a special event and the villagers in a lovely mood.
I think the vicar said it all - when he said we were welcoming in the May because winter's gone, and summer's coming ( hopefully!)
.... and that's just it. A simple expression, whether it be at dawn somewhere, or at a village event, saying goodby to winter, thanks for us surviving, and hello to better times for a while. At a large multinational event locally a few years back, I was engaged in conversation with an Austrian. He said in the mountains, they dressed in white and carried lanterns around the village in the spring, welcoming in the summer and give thanks for surviving the winter.
I think in this country the majority city oriented people are over sophisticated and have forgotten the simple pleasures in life......
... but what do I know?
take care all
Q

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Thrupenny Bit

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Lester

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #54 on: May 06, 2012, 09:56:52 AM »

Whilst I was getting the papers this morning I saw a poster for one of my local teams who will be dancing at sunrise on the 6th (Bank Holiday). As dancing on May Day (1st May) is at best a spurious tradition I can't understand why they are bothering to get up v early on not-May Day to dance on top of a hill?

Thrupenny Bit

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #55 on: May 06, 2012, 10:13:13 AM »

hah!
that's the trouble with morris dancers..... no rhyme or reason  ;D
still so long as they enjoyed it.
cheers
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

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ganderbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #56 on: May 06, 2012, 09:10:54 PM »

Bloomin Cornish , stealing our English sun. nothing but grey and rain here.

Stealing it? We earned it!
Did you dance up the dawn with anyone, Mike?
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Pauline from Cornwall

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Mike Averill

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #57 on: May 07, 2012, 10:13:44 AM »

Bloomin Cornish , stealing our English sun. nothing but grey and rain here.

Stealing it? We earned it!
Did you dance up the dawn with anyone, Mike?

I did a very traditional essex maypole dance,  twice round the runner beans removing slugs and snails. The blackbirds liked it I thing, they certain cleared up the pile of squashed bits.
 
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ganderbox

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #58 on: May 07, 2012, 11:23:14 AM »


I did a very traditional essex maypole dance,  twice round the runner beans removing slugs and snails. The blackbirds liked it I thing, they certain cleared up the pile of squashed bits.
 

So there's the real answer to the question of how it all started!
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Pauline from Cornwall

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Gary

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Re: May Day Morning
« Reply #59 on: May 07, 2012, 02:48:53 PM »

I did an afternoon solo session on a bench in the square at Grantown on Spey ,good weather and fine chat with one of the village elders who agreed on the sad lack of live folk music on local pubs.
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