In more down-to-earth Devon, bonfires were once lit on hill tops, young men led their partner sunwise round the pyre, jumping three times through the flames before feasting on full-moon cakes and supping wines of elder, dandelion, or blackberry, made a year or two earlier, and which by then were particularly potent. Some say that they then wandered off to the greenwood but not being fortunate enough to have been there, rumour will be ignored.

We once regarded the 1st of May as a significant day, until it got replace by a Spring Bank Holiday, or just holiday but the even the significance actually was in inheritance of the recognition of the time of year – known as Beltane.

This Celtic festival was not necessarily celebrated on what for us has become the first day of the month of May in our solar calendar. Beltane was celebrated at a 'time of year' set by, and according to, the moon. The ancient festival was an important seasonal celebration at the start of the summer half of the Celtic year and, as a Lunar defined festival, it could not be altered by human hands. Most, if not all, of our present day celebrations in this period of the year, and many customs almost forgotten, have their origins in the time of Beltane; or before.
The Church, manipulating people’s interests commemorated All Hallows Day on the first day of May, until 834AD, as a festival devoted to a white robed noble army of martyrs.

In Ilfracombe, Celtic crosses were still paraded by boys in the mid 20th century accompanied by other boys blowing horns. This noisy practice derived from the doctrine of resurrection that was taught by Celtic missionaries from the sixth century and encouraged the use of horns and trumpets to awaken those who 'sleep'. The achievements gained by horn blowing is recorded and documented, and was far longer remembered and recognised. Noise enough 'to waken the dead' is a phrase not uncommonly used, even today.

In a letter published in the Daily Western Times, 7th May, 1880, W. Pengelly wrote that;
The first of May is 'May-doll' day
The second of May is kissing day
The third of May is stinging-nettle day.

May-doll activities are still a great force in the Torquay district.

It was a tradition for young girls to carry about dolls, as richly dressed as they could make them, in baskets of flowers on May Day.

It has been suggested that the custom accorded recognition to the Blessed Virgin, patroness of the month of May, but others contend that a deeper mystery, some unrevealed truth, was intended in the doll-carrying, for the face of the doll was covered over carefully, only to be revealed to the initiated. None of the uninitiated was permitted to lift the veil, until they had qualified themselves for the privilege.

An acceptable coin, offered and taken in response to a pretty curtsey and the initiation question. "Will you please to see a May-doll, sir?" was sufficient to ensure that the provider of a metal portrait of the monarch would gain the privilege of viewing the concealed figurine.
Briefly revealed and shared, the doll would then swiftly be covered again and the child would skip away to waylay another prospective initiate.

The custom of carrying May-dolls survived well into the second quarter of the 20th century.
A letter in The Times in 1927 describes the custom at Bishopsteignton and informs us that both girls and boys took part in this traditional manner of money-making with the boys carrying garlands in the form of short flower wreathed poles.

The writer added that, 'expectation is written on their faces, and pennies extracted by each child .... So far as I can see, it is not etiquette to come out on this quest for pennies after 12 years of age for a girl or 14 for a boy.' At Teignmouth the custom was witnessed in 1934.
In Kingsbridge, 1st May was celebrated as Garland Day on which young children carried garlands, and bunches of flowers tied to poles, in procession around the town.

In Holsworthy people assembled in the evening, garlanded with flowers, to dance and sing their way though the streets of the town.

Garlands come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but colour and gaiety are the prime requirements. The hoop garland consists of two or more intersecting hoops covered in flowers and increasing the hoops can produce a flower 'globe', a ball of flowers created on the arrangement and positioning of the multi-hoops. Bright ribbons have always been incorporated with the seasonal flowers, kingcups, tulips, cowslips, early roses, wallflowers, polyanthus, and many more.

These may well be picked early in the morning by maidens who are admonished to wash their faces in dew on May-day morn to assure their beauty remains forever.

In some areas the customs of Garland Day have been retained on May 13th, the Old May Day which indicates clearly that customs came before calendars, and in many cases, still should.
In Devon on May 2nd, Ducking Day, grubby boys who would normally be expected to avoid contact with water under any other circumstances, and whenever possible, claimed the long established 'right' to throw water, preferably dirty water, over anyone who appeared on the streets without a sprig of hawthorn on their apparel.

A fee was demanded of strangers, who wished to pass, unsoaked, and was readily paid to avoid a ducking. In Kingsbridge, the fire engine was put out on display and the hose used to drench inquisitive bystanders and onlookers. Are there suggestions or hints of the survival of ritual invocations to the rain Deity of ancient times in these watery customs? Are those water Deities placated still by the sacrifice of victims?

Threats of a drenching might be found today in Devon village revels, with waterlogged sponges being hurled at victims; willing volunteers tempting the fate of being 'dunked' in water butts of some kind if their seat is somehow removed from beneath them by missiles thrown at a target that, when hit, trips some kind of mechanism that brings about their downfall, literally; or by the competitors who sit astride slippery poles over water and 'fight' each other to avoid a ducking.
Ducking day might still be with us in one form or another, on some day of the year or other, but a trial in June 1894 at the Exeter Assizes almost, as records reveal, brought the age old custom to an end because of "The Death of Dr Twining";

"William John Luscombe, 13, and Samuel George Hine, 16, were indicted for the manslaughter of Dr. Alfred Hughes Twining, at Loddiswell. Hine pleaded guilty, and Luscombe not guilty. Counsel for the prosecution stated that this was a miserable sort of case. These two boys, who, for anything he knew, were very respectable, were charged with manslaughter.

"In that part of Devonshire in which the prisoners lived there was an idiotic custom practiced on the 1st of May, (sic) called 'ducking day,' of throwing water over people.

The prisoners, with others, amused themselves on the evening of that date in throwing water over a fence on to a road some distance below, where there was a passing carriage, containing the late Dr. Twining and Dr. Helier, who were being driven by a servant. The water thrown over the fence frightened the horse, which collided with the fence. More water was thrown, with the result that the horse started off, the carriage was turned over, and its occupants were thrown out. Dr. Twining sustained an injury to his ankle, which, a few days later, necessitated the amputation of the leg at the thigh. As the outcome of that amputation, the doctor died." The learned Judge found there was no case against Luscombe and, accordingly, the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

As to the older boy, the Judge commented that "I have no power to order him a whipping. It would be utterly wrong to send the boy, Hine, to prison." The boy was discharged on what may be termed a suspended sentence; on his own recognizance of £5 and his father's security of £5, to come to judgement when called upon.

May the 3rd was widely known as Roodmas Day or in many local areas as Sting-nettle Day.
There was an ancient custom observed in Bovey Tracey on May 3rd when all the children were given a nettle, or bunch of nettles, to flog each other with. Witnessed earlier this century the custom remains curiously local but with little explanation. Roman soldiers are said to have used nettles, whipping their aching muscles to ease the pain. While Devon was less 'occupied' than many areas the custom celebrated by children by thrashing each other with nettles quite probably arose after people saw the soldiers using nettles that way.

Roodmas Day is a festival of the Church of Rome and was also celebrated at Bovey Tracey on the first Monday after the third of May to commemorate the finding of the cross upon which Jesus suffered.

A procession of Bovey parishioners circumnavigated the bound of their parish with the walkers carrying garlands of flowers on staves; the walls of the village houses were also adorned with flowers on this day of special celebration.

Circumnavigating parishes, or beating the bounds, is a tradition that continues, but not generally on an annual basis at ‘this time of year’ rather than on a specific day, such as May Day which indicates that the pursuit has a longer history than might be imagined; but that’s for consideration another time.

We’ve only taken three steps into the Month of May and ahead lies a month that offered our ancestors a great many pleasures that became the lore of the folk.

Seek them and you shall find, they almost say.

Enjoy the merry month

© Roy & Ursula Radford