Website celebrating May Day festivities in Oxford. More on May Morning 2019 to come...
Listening to the choir at Magdalen Tower, May Morning 2018 (photo Tim Healey). Some 12,000 are reckoned to have attended that year and 13,500 in 2019 - big turnouts for weekdays. Even larger crowds appear when May Day falls on a weekend or Bank Holiday. A record 27,000 turned up in 2017.
May morning in Oxford is famous for the thousands who gather at 6am to hear a Latin hymn sung from the top of Magdalen College tower.
It is an extraordinary ceremony, but only one feature of Oxford tradition. Maytime revels take place all over the city, and were already controversial in Britain in 1250 when the Chancellor of Oxford University forbade ‘alike in churches, all dancing in masks or with disorderly noises, and all processions of men wearing wreaths and garlands made of leaves of trees or flowers or what not.’
This website honours both the historic celebrations and the joyous spontaneity of revels today. You will find photos, videos and any amount of abstruse information about maypoles and morris and much more besides.
Up the May!
NEWSFLASH: Return of the May Ox
For about 20 years a garlanded ox bearing a maid on its back appeared on May Morning at Aristotle Bridge in North Oxford. The effigy was created by the late Michael Black, the sculptor who restored the solemn, bearded Emperors' Heads outside the Sheldonian Theatre. Michael Black helped to create an alternative May Morning in North Oxford, inviting morris dancers to his home in Chalfont Road and furnishing them with a beery breakfast known as 'Black's Treat'. The nearby Anchor pub was a focus for the public celebrations. Events declined in recent years due to the sculptor’s ill-health, and on St Valentine’s Day this year Michael Black died at the age of 90. In tribute to his memory the Ox returned to Aristotle Bridge on May Morning 2019.
For a video of the 2019 celebration see May Day Events in the menu above.
The May Ox on Aristotle Bridge, May Morning 2019 (photo Tim Healey). Eynsham Morris provided the escort, and improvised Emperors' Heads were borne on poles behind the garlanded Ox.
NEWSFLASH: Revels for Sheela
A peaceful protest and celebration of the sacred feminine was staged on May Morning Oxford 2019. The focus was Cornmarket Street, where the Saxon tower at the Church of St Michael at the Northgate houses a rare and ancient Sheela-na-Gig. Pioneer feminist Raga Woods led the revels.
www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16611554.appeal-for-help-to-celebrate-oxfords-sheela-na-gig/
Raga Woods addresses the crowd, May Morning 2019 (photo Tim Healey). To her right is a second Sheela-na-Gig brought to confer blessings on the celebrations.
NEWSFLASH: The Dancing Policemen
The Oxford Times 25 April 2019 carries a feature on The Oxford City Police Morris side. They danced to great acclaim between 1923 and 1936. For more on their story visit:
Oxford City Police Morris Side, 1926 (photo courtesy of Oxford University Images). The great William Kimber is seated front left, concertina in his lap. The side disbanded in 1936, following a display in which a 14-stone officer fell through a platform.
On North Parade, May Day 2018 (photo Tim Healey)
Abingdon Traditional Morris at the Bridge of Sighs, May Morning 2017 (photo Tim Healey)
Sol Samba on the High Street, May Morning 2017 (photo Tim Healey)
This site is maintained by writer and broadcaster Tim Healey. Thanks to the many friends who have contributed material.
Email contact to right
Click on Menu above for events details, photo gallery, videos and pages on the historic background.
NOTE: May Day 2020 falls on a Friday
LINKS
Oxford City Council maintains a website devoted to May Day, with important notes on bus transport, road closures and parking.
See https://www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20035/events/559/may_morning_in_oxford
Daily Information highlights concerts, gigs, and much more. See www.dailyinfo.co.uk/mayday
Folk in Oxford offers a round-the-year survey of the traditional music scene and how to join in. See www.folkinoxford.co.uk