May Day Traditions and Stories in the British Newspaper Archive

To celebrate May Day, we’ve posted two stories from the archive about the various customs observed on this day, as well as the ancient history of the day itself.

One feature that we noticed from reading May Day stories in the newspaper archive was the use of the joyful verb, ‘maying’. We really like this word, and think that it will likely win the BNA ‘word of the month’ award.

And we hope you’ll be maying your way through the month! (White rabbits!)

‘May Day’

Western Daily Press – Saturday 1 May 1948

Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

‘May Day in Liverpool’

Liverpool Echo – Wednesday 1 May 1889

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