Chapter VIII: May Celebrations

Their ancient religious significance—The old English May-day—Fetching
in the May—Puritan condemnation of the May-poles—Their removal “as
a heathenish vanity”—Existing survivals of May customs—May-day
rhymes.

Origin of the celebrations: 1. The bringing in of the May-bough—Wide
distribution of the custom an evidence of its antiquity—Its
original intention—“The May” related to the harvest-bush of France
and Western Germany, and to the Greek _eiresione_—Their common
purpose, to bring to the house a share of the blessings assumed to
be at the disposal of the tree-inhabiting spirit.

2. The May-pole: its primitive intention to bring to the village, as
the May-bough to the family, the newly-quickened generative
potency resident in the woods—Wide prevalence of the
custom—Association of the May-pole with a human image or doll,
representing the vegetation spirit—The Greek festival of the
little Daedala—The May-pole, originally renewed every year, became
later a permanent erection, newly dressed on May-day—Assumed
beneficent influence of the May-pole.

3. The May Queen, May Lady, or King and Queen of the May: Evidence
that these personages were originally regarded as human
representatives or embodiments of the generalised tree-soul—Often
associated with its vegetable representative, the tree or bough;
or clothed in leaves and flowers, _e.g._ the Green George of
Carinthia and our Jack-in-the-Green—The custom general throughout
Europe—Robin Hood and Maid Marian originally King and Queen of the
May—In primitive times the human representative of the vegetation
spirit probably sacrificed, in order that the spirit might pass to
a more vigorous successor—Human sacrifice in Mexico—Survival in
symbol of this ancient custom in Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, etc. 144