May Day 2024: What is it and how is it celebrated?

May Day is a European festival that dates back nearly a thousand years.

It marks the beginning of summer and is usually celebrated at the beginning of May - halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.

It's thought to have been inspired by three older festivals: Beltane fires, Walpurgisnacht and Floralia.

People around the UK celebrate May Day in lots of different ways including maypole dancing, Morris dancing and crowning a May Queen.

Will you be taking part in any May Day celebrations? Let us know what you're doing in the comments below!

May Day is thought to be a combination of three ancient festivals which can be traced back to Roman times.

But it wasn't until the Medieval period when it became a festival in the British Isles.

People in towns and villages would eat lots of food and dance - traditions that have continued into the modern day.

May Day celebrations, along with other festivities like Christmas, were banned in the 1640s by the Puritans - but King Charles II later brought it back.

The first May Day holiday was established in 1978 and traditions are still going strong in many villages around the UK.

There are lots of superstitions around May Day which date back to the Victorians.

They include waking up before dawn to wash your face in the dew and gathering flowers for your friends to wear.

Villages prepare fetes and parades on floats before eating lots of yummy food.

Often children and adults dance around a maypole on the village green which has ribbons around it. These dances have been passed down from generation to generation.

A May Queen is usually crowned too. A local girl is usually chosen for the role and will lead the May Day celebrations.

Some people dress themselves up as The Green Man, also known as Jack-in-the-Green.

The Green Man symbolises the cycle of new growth that happens each spring.

You might also see Morris dancers, people who wear bells on their legs and dance with sticks. Morris dancing is a form of ancient folk Dance in England.

This Iron Age Celtic ritual marks the birth of the summer.

Though Beltane has been celebrated for thousands of years, modern celebrations can include acrobatics, drummers, dancers, musicians, witches and spectators.

In the past, fire was once seen as a purifier and healer so farmers would have led their cattle between bonfires to protect them before they were put into the fields for summer.

Although they're both called May Day, they're not actually related - although it is the reason why we get a May Bank Holiday.

International Worker's Day is also known as Labour Day and is mainly celebrated in places like America, Canada and Australia.

It's a celebration of the achievement of workers and has origins in the eight-hour day movement which stood for eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of down-time.