May Day

The woods and pastures are joyous
in their abundance now
in a season of warmth and much rain.
We walk amid foliage, amid
song. The sheep and cattle graze
like souls in bliss (except for flies)
and lie down satisfied. Who now
can believe in winter? In winter
who could have hoped for this?

Wendell Berry, Poem IV, 'Sabbaths 1998' in Given: New Poems (2005).

May Day: it is a day to celebrate. Summer approaches, the joys of warmer days and longer evenings.  For the Church not to celebrate May Day is to ignore the gift of the created order.

He sendeth the springs into the rivers: which run among the hills. 
All beasts of the field drink thereof: and the wild asses quench their thirst.
Beside them shall the fowls of the air have their habitation: and sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from above: the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works.
He bringeth forth grass for the cattle: and green herb for the service of men;
That he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man: and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart (Psalm 104:10-15).

How is May Day to be celebrated?  The Oxford custom of the Magdalene College Choir singing the Hymnus Eucharisticus in praise of the Holy Trinity points to the joy which should mark the Church's praise on this day.  For those of us outside Oxford, the Te Deum at Mattins and the General Thanksgiving ("we bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life") offer an opportunity for joyful thanksgiving on this day.

The 1618 Book of Sports - an important classical Anglican statement of the culture of festivity - defended traditional May Day customs against Puritan strictures.  The Book of Sports, issued by James I and reissued by the Royal Martyr, rejected the Puritan insistence and the Recusant allegation that "no honest mirth or recreation is lawfull or tolerable in Our Religion".  A contemporary re-reception of the Book of Sports would allow the Church to encourage a culture of festivity on May Day not as a supposedly 'secular' experience, overcoming - in the words of John Milbank - "any facile separations between the sacred and the secular or between faith and reason, grace and nature".

The fact that 1st May is Saint Philip and Saint James's Day also contributes to the festivity of May Day.  The rich, jubliant landscape of Spring is evoked in Cranmer's collect (with its threefold use of "life"), encouraging us to see reflected in the richness of Spring the abundance of Life celebrated on the feast:

O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This, by the way, is a reminder of the wisdom of Anglican calendars retaining the traditional feast of Saint Philip and Saint James on this day, rather than following the Roman innovation (introduced in 1955) of displacing Philip and James with Joseph the Worker (which also represents a very narrow understanding of May Day).  

As Spring prepares to become Summer, our natural joy and festivity at this time should be caught up in the Church's praise and thanksgiving.  To ignore May Day and the joy surrounding this time of year, is to hand over to secularism a delight in the created order.  Joyful thanksgiving, the culture of festivity, and Saint Philip and Saint James's Day together enable the Church to recognise May Day, to ensure that the experience and delight of this day are not dismissed as secular but have their place in the Church's life and mission.