May Calendar: Thames Valley

April

May

1	May Day. Garland Day	May Carol: Oxford. Maypole & Morris Dancing
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3	St. Helena's Day	Rood Day. Discovery of the Holy Cross
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7	St. John of Beverley's Day	Blessing St. John's Well: Harpham (nearest Tue)
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MAY First Week Sun Rises 0532 Sets 2024 BST

1: Singing the May Carol: Magdelene College Tower, Oxford. The Rood Screen Garland: Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire. Hobby Horses: Padstow & Minehead. May Day Revels: Welford-on-Avon, Warwickshire and many other places. Election of the May Monarch and maypole dancing: Roehampton University - directly descended from Whitelands May Queen Ceremony, Chelsea. Ducking Day: Loddiswell, Devon. Former May Fires: Lake District & Cornwall
"Hoar frost on May the first indicates a good harvest"
"The longer the blackthorn in bloom after May the first, the better the harvest."
First Sat: Royal May Day: Knutsford, Cheshire.
May Day Bank Holiday: Jack-in-the-Green Festival: Hastings, Sussex.
Sweeps Procession: Rochester, Kent.May Festivities: Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire and many other places. Cuckoo Fair: Downton, Wiltshire. May Fayre: Wokingham, Berkshire.
First Sun: Randwick Wap: near Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Sun after Holy Cross Day: Pig's Face Feast: Avening, Gloucestershire.

8	Apparition of St. Michael	Furry Day : Helston, Cornwall. VE Day 1945
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10	.	Beaconsfield Fair: Buckinghamshire.
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11	St. Mamertius	.
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12	Old May Day. St. Pancras' Day	.
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13	St. Gervatius	Garland Day: Abbotsbury, Dorset.
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14	Pag Rag Day.	.
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MAY Second Week Sun Rises 0520 Sets 2035 BST

"If on the eighth of May it rain,
It foretells a wet harvest, men sain."
Sun nearest 8: Chestnut Sunday: Hampton Court, Middlesex.
Thu nearest 12: Stow Fair: Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire

11,12,13: The Ice Saints: Mamertius, Pancras & Gervatius.
"He, who shears his sheep before St. Gervatius' Day, loves his wool more than his sheep!"

First new moon in May: Toad Fairs last at Stalbridge, Dorset (early 19th century)
May: Leek-Throwing: Crickhowell, Powys.
Rhyl May Day Celebrations: Flintshire.

15	St. Dympna's Day
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17	St. Madron's Day	.
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19	St. Dunstan's Day	.
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20	St. Ethelbert's Day	.
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21	St. Collen's Day	Earliest Corpus Christi
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MAY Third Week Sun Rises 0509 Sets 2046 BST

3rd Thu: Weighing the Mayor: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
Throwing the Kitchels: Harwich, Essex
Wed nearest 18: Dunting the Freeholder: Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland.
17-19: The Devil blights apple trees with frost on these 3 days.
17-23: "Storms from the east or south-east between these days indicate a wet summer."
19-21: "Easterly winds on these days indicate a dry summer."
21: Henry VI Memorial Day: Tower of London
3rd Week: Knighton Fair: Powys

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24	St. Urban's Day. Empire Day	.
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25	St. Aldhelm's Day	.
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26	St. Augustine's Day	.
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27	St. Bede's Day	.
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29	Royal Oak (Oak Apple) Day	Garland Day: Castleton, Derbyshire.
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30	St. Walstan's Day	Charles Dickens Festival: Rochester, Kent
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MAY Last Week Sun Rises 0459 Sets 2056 BST

Late Spring Bank Holiday: May Celebrations: Wellow, Nottinghamshire. Chippenham Folk Festival: Wiltshire. Hooden Horses & Morris Dancing: Charing, Kent. Well Dressing: Endon, Staffordshire.
Cheese Rolling: Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire.
Kingsteinton Fair: Devon. Hunting the Earl of Rone: Combe Martin, Devon
Tue after Bank Holiday: Raising the Maypole: Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire.
Fri after: Cotswold Olympic Games: Dovers Hill, Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire.
Sat after: The Scuttlebrook Wake: Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire.
24: St. Urban drives his mother from the fire. (St. Urban brings summer)
29: Royal Oak Day (Charles II's return to England): Royal Chelsea Hospital. Grovely Forest Wood Cutting Rights: Wishford Magna, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Arbour Day: Aston-on-Clun, Shropshire.
Sat nearest 29: Hearts of Oak Friendly Society Club Walk: Fownhope, Hereford
Last Weekend: Ancient Scorton Silver Arrow Archery Tournament: Scorton, Yorkshire.
End: "Cast ne'er a clout 'till May be out"

Hawthorn: May Blossom. During the hey day of Merry England (1500-1752) when the calendar was 10 or 11 days ahead of what it is now, the May Blossom started on May Day and flowered through to the end of the month. After the change in the calendar of 1752 it was not until around the 12th May that it came into flower. In recent years early springs have brought its flowering period forward to the the 1st of May again

Oak Apple: caused by the gall wasp Biorhiza pallida, its appearence at the end of May has linked it with the restoration of the Monarchy when Charles II returned to England in 1660 on his birthday of the 29th May.