May Morning

Magdalen College, Oxford on May Morning, 2007.

Morris dancing on May Morning, Oxford 2004.

May Morning is an annual event in Oxford, England, on May Day (1 May). It starts early at 6am with the Magdalen College Choir singing a hymn, the Hymnus Eucharisticus, from the top of Magdalen Tower, a tradition of over 500 years.^[1] Large crowds normally gather under the tower along the High Street and on Magdalen Bridge. This is then followed by general revelry and festivities including Morris dancing, impromptu music, etc., for a couple of hours. There is a party atmosphere, despite the early hour. In fact, there are normally all-night balls the night before, so some people (especially students) are in formal attire (e.g., black tie/white tie or ball gown).

There is a recent tradition of students jumping from Magdalen Bridge. This seems to have started in the early 1980s,^[2] and has become a concern. The months that precede May can be relatively dry, and lead to a rather shallow river. This has resulted in some instances of serious injury, most notably those of 2005. The exceptionally low water resulted around half the hundred or so jumpers requiring medical treatment resulting in the closure of the bridge on every May Morning since 2006, until its reopening in 2011.

Until the 1990s, there was a genuinely long tradition of university undergraduates congregating under the bridge in hired punts, and having early morning picnics and drinking. Towns people would congregate on Magdalen Bridge to laugh at their antics, while awaiting the singing. The intoxicated punters often fell in the river and waded about. Punts frequently sank. When punt owners, both private and college, banned the letting out of punts on May morning they effectively cleared the river under the bridge, making it look inviting to young people gathered on the bridge, usually students new to Oxford and ignorant of how shallow the river is at this point. Hence the very recent habit of jumping, encouraged by the totally mistaken idea that this is a tradition, and the media attention given to it. Because of this unfortunate situation, access to the bridge has now been closed for several years during the ceremony.

In the 19th century, the young townsmen blew horns and ran riot, after the singing. Activities have varied over the previous centuries. One fictional description of the Tudor May Morning is in "Towers in the Mist" by Elizabeth Goudge.^[3]

See also

• English traditions on May Day
• The Oxcentrics, a jazz band that played on May Mornings in the 1970s

References

1. ^ May Morning, Magdalen College, Oxford.
2. ^ "BBC NEWS". BBC News. 1 May 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8027689.stm. Retrieved 18 March 2011. 
3. ^ Elizabeth Goudge, Towers in the Mist.

External links

• Music for a May Morning CD from Magdalen College
• May Morning 2003 from the BBC
• Morning, Magdalen Tower by William Holman Hunt (1890)