May Morning
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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. 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 has never been a tradition of students jumping off Magdalen Bridge, merely a recent occurrence of some doing this despite the obvious danger and shallow water. In 2005, the exceptionally low water resulted around half the hundred or so jumpers requiring medical treatment resulting in the closure of the bridge since 2006.
Until the 1990's 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 awaitng 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. Genuine traditions are not so stupid. Because of this unfortunate situation, access to the bridge has now been closed for several years,during the ceremony. There was another necessarily long tradition of the entire crowd falling silent during the singing. This is the only way it could be heard before amplification, which was also introduced quite recently, when the crowds ceased falling silent.
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.
[edit] See also
- English traditions on May Day
- The Oxcentrics, a jazz band that played on May Mornings in the 1970s
[edit] External links
- May Morning information and Music for a May Morning CD from Magdalen College
- May Morning 2003 from the BBC
- Morning, Magdalen Tower by William Holman Hunt (1890)
