south-east of Ireland on May Day the prettiest girl used to be chosen Queen of the district for twelve months. She was crowned with wild flowers; feasting, dancing, and rustic sports followed, and were closed by a grand procession in the evening. During her year of office she presided over rural gatherings of young people at dances and merrymakings. If she married before next May Day her authority was at an end, but her successor was not elected till that day came round.[1] The May Queen is common in France[2] and familiar in England.
Again the spirit of vegetation is sometimes represented by a king and queen, a lord and lady, or a bridegroom and bride. Here again the parallelism holds between the anthropomorphic and the vegetable representation of the tree-spirit, for we have seen above that trees are sometimes married to each other.[3] In a village near Königgrätz (Bohemia) on Whit-Monday the children play the king’s game, at which a king and a queen march about under a canopy, the queen wearing a garland, and the youngest girl carrying two wreaths on a plate behind them. They are attended by boys and girls called groom’s men and bridesmaids, and they go from house to house collecting gifts.[4] Near Grenoble, in France, a king and queen are chosen on the 1st of May and are set on a throne for all to see.[5] At Headington, near Oxford, children used to carry garlands from door to door on
- ↑ Dyer, British Popular Customs, p. 270 sq.
- ↑ Mannhardt, B. K., p. 344 sq.; Cortet, Fêtes religieuses, p. 160 sqq.; Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées, p. 282 sqq.; Berenger-Feraud, Réminiscences popdaires de la Provence, p. 1 sqq.
- ↑ Above, p. 60.
- ↑ Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, p. 265 sq.; Mannhardt, B. K. p. 422.
- ↑ Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées, p. 304; Mannhardt, B. K. p. 423.
