May is here

As summer comes, Britain likes to celebrate the end of the winter. Much of this celebration is connected with dancing, which is performed to encourage life and growth and to drive away harmful spirits. Children may be seen dancing round the Maypole on village greens, weaving their brightly coloured scarves into a beautiful pattern. Morris men dance all day long on 1st May, waving their white handkerchiefs to drive away the evil spirits and welcome in the new ones.

Susan Sheerin, Jonathan Seath, Gillian White: Spotlight on Britain; Oxford University Press, 1985, page 12