With Every Passing Day...: Celebrating May Day in Oxford!

I returned to England just in time to experience May Day… In Oxford, the May Day celebrations begin on the eve of May 1st with an all-night party. Needless to say, that was way past my bed-time so I simply cheered on my friends with considerably more stamina than I from the comfort of my bed… But Anna and I did manage to drag ourselves out at 5am the next morning to join the crowds (half of which were drunk while the others were half asleep still)… There was an amazing assortment of outfits… From traditional Celtic and British May-Day outfits to tuxes (for your more classy Oxford partiers) to pjs to the classic skimpy, up-all-night, club attire… Anna and I even had the joy of watching one pathetic guy “chunder” (another wonderful British term I’ve adopted) all over the street in front of us. Needless to say, this made the tightly packed crowd directly around him scatter as much as room would allow, leaving a nice wide hole. For the rest of the morning Anna and I (along with the slightly drunken, yet hilariously sarcastic, preps behind us) enjoyed a new game, “Which tourist will unknowingly trod directly through last night’s dinner”… It was absolutely disgusting, yet oddly memorable.

But the comedy of it all was forgotten as soon as the choir began singing atop Magdalen Bell Tower at 6am. It was absolutely surreal, especially with the sun rising in the distance. The singing and prayers for a prosperous summer continued for about a half hour, before the street party began again. The crowds simply shifted from High St to Broad St and the festivities continued on into the day! Complete with crazy bands, funky costumes, and of course more pub drinking (and yes, the pubs were filling up again before we even made it out of town)… :)

Sunrise over Magdalen College Bell Tower on May-Day <3

Several thousand tourists, students, and towns-people crowded onto High Street at 6am to hear the choir sing atop the Magdalen College Bell Tower… It was fairly impressive!

I particularly loved the classic May-Day hats and outfits celebrating the beginning of summer! :)

Sun rising over Oxford <3

As soon as the choir finished the crowds moved to Broad Street to keep the all-night (and all-day) party going! Talk about stamina at 6am! :)

Needless to say, Anna and I returned to the comfort of our beds relatively quickly… And our May Day was spent tucked away in a quiet hole of the library, rather than enjoying in the British debauchery that I’m sure ensued in our absence. But it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we managed to soak up some of the sunlight later that afternoon before joining the boys for a dinner of bangers n’ mash and a classic night at the pub… All in all, I was quite pleased with my first (and perhaps last) May Day experience!