May Queen
A girl who leads May Day celebrations, symbolising spring and purity.
The May Queen, also known as the Queen of May, is a personification of the May Day holiday of 1 May, and of springtime and the coming growing season. In the British Isles and parts of the Commonwealth, she is a girl who rides or walks at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations, wearing a white gown to symbolise purity and usually a tiara or crown. Her duty is to begin the May Day celebrations, and she is generally crowned by flowers and makes a speech before the dancing begins.
- Field
- Folk custom and seasonal celebration
- Known for
- Personification of May Day and springtime; leading May Day parades
- Associated region
- British Isles and parts of the Commonwealth
- Symbolism
- Purity (white gown), spring, and the growing season
Lore & Background
In 1922 James George Frazer speculated that the figure of the May Queen was linked to ancient tree worship. In the High Middle Ages in England the May Queen was also known as the 'Summer Queen'. George C. Homans points out: 'The time from Hocktide, after Easter Week, to Lammas (1 August) was summer (estas).'
Reader's Guide
The May Queen tradition has been maintained in many areas into the 21st century. While exact records are often unavailable, a number of celebrations have unbroken records (with some known breaks for world wars and COVID-19) spanning over 100 years. Examples include Sawrey May Day in Cumbria, Ickwell May Day (records from 1872), Knutsford Royal May Day (revived in 1864), and London's May Queen at Hayes Common in Bromley (running since 1912 or 1913). A May Day celebration held annually since 1870 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, has the distinction of being the longest running May Day celebration of its kind in the British Commonwealth. Male companions to the May Queen, sometimes associated with May Day customs in Great Britain, include personifications known as Father May, King of the May, May King, Garland King, Green Man, or Jack in the Green. As part of this folk custom, some villages would choose a man to act as consort for the May Queen, who would dress in greenery to symbolise springtime.
Did You Know?
- In 1557, a London diarist described a May-game featuring 'the lord and the lade of the Maye'.
- James George Frazer speculated in 1922 that the May Queen was linked to ancient tree worship.
- A May Day celebration in New Westminster, Canada, has run annually since 1870.
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