Queen of May

The May Queen or Queen of May is a personification of the May Day holiday, and of springtime and also summer.

Today the May Queen is a girl who must ride or walk at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations. She wears a white gown to symbolise purity and usually a tiara or crown. Her duty is to begin the May Day celebrations. She is generally crowned by flowers and makes a speech before the dancing begins. Certain age-groups dance round a Maypole celebrating youth and the spring time.

Sir James George Frazer linked the figure of the May Queen to ancient tree worship. Some modern folklore gives the tradition a sinister twist, suggesting that the May Queen and/or May King was put to death once the festivities were over. Frequent associations between May Day rituals, the occult and human sacrifice are now found in popular culture. The Wicker Man, a cult horror film starring Christopher Lee, is a prominent example of these associations.

In the High Middle Ages in England the May Queen was also known as the "Summer Queen". George C. Homans points out: "The time from Hocktide, after Easter Week, to Lammas (August 1) was summer (estas)."

In 1557, a London diarist called Henry Machyn wrote:

"The xxx day of May was a goly May-gam in Fanch-chyrchestrett with drumes and gunes and pykes, and ix wordes dyd ryd; and thay had speches evere man, and the morris dansse and the sauden, and an elevant with the castyll, and the sauden and yonge morens with targattes and darttes, and the lord and the lade of the Maye".

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