While Winter is being driven off the arena, a procession of Villagers, comprising 50 couples [i. e., partners], enter through South Interlude Gate and dance the Tideswell Processional Morris. The dancers include men, women, and children of all classes and are dressed in their holiday clothes, plentifully bedecked with flowers and ribbons. Each carries two handkerchiefs, one in each hand, or, if preferred, boughs of May blossom. They dance round the arena in a spiral until the front couple reach the centre; whereupon, all raise their arms and shout on the last chord of the tune. Spring and all the actors already on the ground join in the procession at the rear, or wherever they can squeeze in.
3: REVELS AND AMUSEMENTS
Upon the completion of the dance, the dancers disperse noisily all over the ground. The children play Singing Games, e. g., “Oats and Beans,” “Here We Come Gathering Nuts (i. e. Knots) in May,” “Old Sir Roger,” etc., in different parts of the ground—not too close together. Booths and stalls are brought in, a rustic stage[31] is set up, tumblers and jugglers, surrounded by groups of spectators, give their performances, and all unite in a scene of general merriment. Couples, each consisting of a boy and a girl, carry May garlands, sing May day songs, and solicit offerings. The young men chase the girls and kiss them “under the green,” i. e., while raising the boughs of green over their heads.
4: MAY POLE PROCESSION
The following procession enters from South Interlude Gate.
- [1] Two Jack-O’-Greens
- [2] Plough-boys with plough.
- [3] Sowers.
- [4] Reapers.
- [5] Wagon, drawn by several yoke of oxen, carrying the tree.
- [6] Milkmaids.
- [7] Blacksmiths.
- [8] Wheelwrights.
- [9] Carpenters.
- [10] Butchers.
- [11] Shoemakers.
- [1] Hidden in bushes of green, surmounted by a
- May Garland.
- [2] White smocks, patched with pictures, in red
- and black cloth, representing farm-animals. Hats
- covered with flowers, their plough smothered with
- ribbons and flowers.
- [3] Carrying baskets of grain, pretending to sow.
- [4] With reaping hooks or sickles.
- [5] Wagon and oxen decorated with greenery and
- ribbons, the horns of the oxen with flowers. The
- carters, who walk on either side of the wagon, wear
- broad-brimmed hats, short smocks, breeches, all
- covered with ribbons and flowers, and carry whips
- or goads similarly decorated, with which they urge
- on the oxen.
- [6] Carrying pails and dishes; wearing short
- dresses, and sun-hats or bonnets, all covered with
- flowers and ribbons.
- [7] With bare heads, leathern aprons, carrying
- implements of trade—hammers, anvils, tongs.
- [8] Carrying or rolling wheels.
- [9] With saws, planes, tools, etc.
- [10] Wearing blue blouses, carrying marrow bones
- and cleavers, and clashing them as they march.
When the wagon reaches the May-pit, the procession halts. The tree is ceremonially removed, ivy, laurels, and other greenery wound round it spirally, a large bunch of flowers placed at the top, and then, in dead silence, solemnly raised to position. Directly this is accomplished, the spectators raise a great shout and repeat it three times: “The Pole is up.”
5: ELECTION OF MAY QUEEN, AND MAY POLE DANCE
The men disperse in groups and, after some discussion and altercation, proceed in a body to the woman of their choice, present her with a wreath of May blossom, with ribbon streamers and rosettes for her dress, and escort her to a raised mound of grass where every one may see her. She is kissed “under the green” by the men, amid much laughter and merriment. The woman chosen is a regular “man’s girl,” jolly and of a romping kind, quite different from the conventional May Queen.