ORIGINATING from the pagan Anglo-Saxon festivities of the Month of Three Milkings May Day (May 1) has been celebrated in the UK for centuries.
Marked by traditions such as Morris dancers, the maypole and - of course - a three-day weekend it is historically a celebration of springtime fertility, of the soil, livestock and people. Aside from an extra lie-in there's far more to the history than you'd think, so here are five things you probably didn't realise
1. May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by puritan parliaments during the Interregnum (1649 - 1660) but reinstated with the restoration of Charles II.
2. A tradition that has long been lost but was popular is the giving of 'May baskets', small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.
3. In Oxford it has become traditional for people to jump from the Magdalen Bridge into the River Cherwell on May Morning leading to serious injury, and therefore, in more recent years, the decision by police to close the bridge entirely.
4. Every year campaigners march in London on May Day, regardless of what day it falls, to lobby government to reinstate the day as a national holiday, regardless of whether it falls on a Monday or not.
5. In February 2011, the UK Parliament was reported to be considering scrapping the bank holiday associated with May Day, replacing it with a bank holiday in October, possibly coinciding with Trafalgar Day to create a 'United Kingdom Day'.
