The traditions and customs connected with May Day in Great Britain have survived longest in the West of England; even now, as will be seen by the account of recent celebrations at Helston in Cornwall, given below, they are still continued.
Altogether the customs, ancient and modern, of which the flower worship formed a part, may be summed up as follows:—
1. Lighting of bonfires,[45] and, in the evening, houses illuminated with candles, torches carried about, and fireballs played with.
2. Man and beast passed through the fire or between two fires.
3. Going out at daybreak to gather Whitethorn or May (Sycamore in Cornwall), and making whistles of the branches for the May-music and merry-making. Blowing of tin horns at daybreak by boys, and from money received getting breakfast at a farmhouse.
4. Flower-bedecked girls dance round a Maypole, and one chosen as “Queen of the May.”
5. In Cornwall the custom prevailed till lately of going out with buckets or any available vessels full of water and thoroughly wetting anyone who was not wearing a piece of May.
6. The “Furry Dance” (in Cornwall), which consists in dancing through the town and also through as many houses as desired. If resistance is offered it is permitted to break open the door, and no penalty can be imposed.
7. Sacrifices made (Isle of Man) at a very ancient date, and probably human ones still earlier (Scotland).
8. Special worship at holy wells.