January 21 – May 1, 2022

March 25 – April 30, 2022

Kate and Vish are joined by a tanned Jim Campbell for a look into the rumoured departure of comfort’s number one enemy, Antonio Conte. Punch glass for Poch!

Elsewhere, Leeds snagged a much-needed point last night ahead of a tricky few weeks, especially since Everton now have access to the Big Man upstairs, and Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review gets a definitely legitimate endorsement from the UK government.

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Why Call My Agent! is being remade abroad

March 11 – May 15, 2022

February 18 – May 1, 2022

As the new Doctor Strange film comes out, the truth about its parallel realities

Our review of We Own This City, the new TV series from The Wire's David Simon

9 min read

The origins of the folk traditions of May Day

Ancient origins

May Day, like most folklore customs, has its roots in the Dark Ages. The ancient Celts divided the year into four major festivals – Samhain (October 31st – November 1st), Imbolic (February 1st), Beltane (May 1st) and Lughnasadh (August 1st). Beltane, a Celtic word meaning ‘the fire (or fires) of Bel’ marked the beginning of summer for the Celts. The festival celebrated the coming of longer, lighter days, the rebirth and renewal of spring, and the hope for a plentiful harvest in the year ahead. Beltane is still celebrated throughout the UK today, though it is now better known as May 1st or May Day.

‘Heathenish vanity’ and pagan superstitions

The most well-known of Oxford’s May Day traditions is of course, Magdalen College’s choir singing Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of Magdalen Tower at 6am to waiting crowds below. This tradition, however, has only been documented from about 1674 and marking May Day in Oxford goes back much further than that. More detail on Magdalen College’s role in the celebrations can be found on the Museum of Oxford blog here.

Pre-Christian traditions and pagan superstitions particularly relating to nature, still had a strong influence in the Middle Ages. The earliest accounts of Maytime celebrations mainly refer to ‘bringing in the May’ which is when people would go out into the fields and countryside to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their homes and other buildings. Green has long been associated with life and rebirth, which is embodied by The Green Man, an ancient pagan figure representing fertility and growth. A central figure in May Day celebrations throughout Northern and Central Europe, he is the male counterpart of the May Queen, and is often portrayed with acorns and hawthorn leaves, medieval symbols of fertility associated with spring.

If you look closely, the Green Man pops up all over Oxford and Oxfordshire, in churches, on college buildings and in street architecture. The Green Man features in churches as symbol of rebirth and resurrection, key ideas in Christianity, and serves as an example of how images from the ‘old religion’ were brought into medieval churches to tie them to the Christian faith.

Jules, Luke and Pete are here to survey the respective car-crashes that were Man United’s trip to the Emirates and Jules’ Saturday night appearance on Pointless!

We kick off with the Merseyside derby as Everton sink deeper into the quagmire while Burnley and Mike Jackson moonwalk all over it. Elsewhere, Paul Scholes lands Jesse Lingard in bother, Jorginho takes one of the worst penalties in Premier League history, and things take a turn on Planet Mark McGhee!

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***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

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