High Hopes
Bank Holiday Monday. Everyone’s at home, except for Gubs, who’s up in Manchester. Kenadee & Bento are going back to the States on Saturday. It will be a while before we see them again, so we’re making the most of our last few days all together. The weather was not so great, rather cool and overcast, but actually pretty good for walking. We all set out in various cars and met at Preston School, where Vanessa works. Ken hasn’t been there yet, and the countryside is beautiful. We set out through the Rec and across the fields, past the church, and on towards Wickhambreaux; we saw horses and goats, and Dash shooed away a herd of cows that were blocking a bridge and intimidating Milo. We clocked up 7.5km in total, and after that it was time for lunch.
On a busy Bank Holiday weekend, a pub lunch is on many agendas, but luckily, the Grove Ferry Inn has a huge garden with plenty of tables outside. There was literally room at the Inn, and we all parked ourselves at a long trestle table and ordered lunch. I grabbed this photo of Monty’s delicious-looking ribs, with Bento gazing at them longingly in the background. Later, back at home, it was a very mellow afternoon with movies and games into the evening.
Kenadee asked what this holiday in May was all about, as it’s not something they share in the States; I vaguely recalled something to do with fertility rites and some rather camp pole-dancing in primary school, so I looked it up. The UK May Day bank holiday was established in 1978 by Michael Foot, then Labour Employment Secretary, making it one of Britain's newest public holidays. The decision to move it to the first Monday in May — rather than May 1st itself — was part of broader reforms to standardise bank holiday timing and spread them more evenly throughout the year. Though officially designated as a bank holiday only in the late 1970s, the day carries far deeper cultural significance that stretches back centuries.
The celebration of May Day itself has ancient roots in the British Isles, originating in Celtic traditions like Beltane, which marked the first day of summer with bonfires to protect livestock as they were moved from winter shelters to fields. Throughout medieval and Tudor England, May Day was celebrated with maypole dancing, the crowning of May Queens, and boisterous festivities that brought together entire communities to gather flowers and greenery. These traditions were suppressed during Oliver Cromwell's Protectorship when an Act of Parliament in 1644 banned maypoles as "heathenish vanity." However, they returned with enthusiasm after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The modern bank holiday weaves together these ancient folk traditions with the more recent association of May 1st as International Workers' Day, adopted in 1889 to commemorate the labour movement.
