May Day Celebrations in Lewes

May Day Celebrations in Lewes  (May 2, 2011)

I almost didn’t go, but I thought, “When else will I get to see how they celebrate May Day in a small English town?”  So I walked up to the May celebrations at the castle in Lewes.  I’m glad I did.

 It’s traditional here for young girls to make wreathes and garlands from flowers in their gardens and converge on the castle grounds.  I joined a large crowd of parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends. 

The festivities started with performances by several Morris Dance groups.  Morris Dancing is a type of folk dancing that includes figures and patterns.  Several of the troupes used garlands, sticks, and handkerchiefs as part of the choreography.  Some wore bells.

A dragon came around and wanted to be fed coins.  He was benign, but some of the children thought he was pretty scary! 

Then the dancers, their musicians, the garland bedecked girls, and whoever else wanted to marched down to the market square.

More dancing ensued.

Those are wooden shoes

One of the bands -- look closely at the guy on the far right

For you musicologist-types -- yes, that is a serpent!

This man was the “fool” for one Morris troupe.  One of his jobs was to bop and “bang” people in the crowd with a dried pig’s bladder that had been blown up like a balloon.  He told me he had never “banged” a woman from Texas before.  (He gave me some flowers after he did.)