May Day
1 May 2026 — Grab a ribbon – summer is coming, dancing round the maypole!
May Day, celebrated on 1 May, is an old British welcome to spring and summer. Its roots lie in medieval and even older rural customs marking the start of the warm season. People went out early in the morning to gather blossoming branches and decorate houses and village greens. The best-known symbol is the maypole: a tall pole hung with coloured ribbons, which dancers weave into patterns as they circle it. Many places also choose a May Queen, crowned with flowers. In Padstow, Cornwall, the town holds a procession featuring the ’Obby ’Oss, a dancing horse costume accompanied by music and song. On the calendar, the date falls roughly halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, so it is often linked with the turning of the seasons. In the United Kingdom, the related public holiday is usually the first Monday in May rather than 1 May itself.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation: a tall maypole with long ribbons of starlight spiralling around it as it drifts slowly across the night sky
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