PICTURED: DANCERS GATHER AT SUNRISE FOR MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS
Crowds of Morris dancers dressed in traditional folkwear gathered at sunrise across the country to ring in the beginning of May.
Performers met as early as 5am on Wednesday morning to mark the dawn of May Day and observe a pagan festival celebrated for hundreds of years.
Members of the Leicester Morris Men were pictured braving the misty weather to dance in front of the Old John Tower in Bradgate Park, as others in Glastonbury, Somerset cheered in their all-white ensembles after the sun had risen.
According to the Leicester group, the dancing is “a very social activity - it helps to keep you fit, it entertains (or irritates) the public, it keeps the tradition alive and, most importantly, it is fun”.
May Day was also celebrated on Primrose Hill, London, by female group The Belles of London City who performed a Cotswold variety of Morris dancing characterised by handkerchief and stick props. The performance also featured Betley, the group’s Hobby Horse, among the dancers.
Morris dancing is typically performed in groups of six or eight arranged in two lines as dancers shake white handkerchiefs and bang sticks against each other to the rhythm of a drum or accordion.
Dancers wear white save for coloured baldrics (belts) across their chests and bell-pads tied from the knee which provide their characteristic sound.
May Day celebrations, closely linked to the Beltane pagan celebrations, honour the beginning of the summer and was traditionally observed to bless crops and wildlife.
The festivities often include the dancing, crowning of a May queen and performing around a maypole.
2024-05-01T14:03:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd