May Blossom in Seasonal Garlands
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Hawthorn blossom, traditionally called May, was among the greenery associated with spring festivities in Britain. Garlands and decorated branches featured in changing May Day customs, including celebrations organised around a May Queen.
The timing of actual flowering varies with weather and region, so the seasonal name does not mean that every hawthorn blossoms on the first of May. Nor does a May garland demonstrate an unchanged pre-Christian rite: customs were adapted and reinvented across generations.
Source trail: Royal Horticultural Society accounts of hawthorn folklore and May customs; Woodland Trust guidance on hawthorn flowering.
Related Journal: Hawthorn in British Folklore.