THE MAYDAY SNAP

Medieval cosplay in the 1930s and a tease of the week ahead

This photo dates from 1931, and shows dancing around a Maypole at a college in Putney during a visit by Queen Mary, consort of George V. As you can see, medieval cosplay was alive and well in the interwar years, just as it is today. And May Day has a good time for paying tribute to the English later Middle Ages. From the fourteenth century onwards English village celebrations on May 1st rolled together pagan themes with loose Christian observance. Think dancing, drunkenness and the opportunity for fornication, but the Church would turn a blind eye. I suppose that’s Christmas, these days.

Once I’ve done drinking and fornicating today I’ll start thinking of the week ahead on History, Etc. Tomorrow we have a VERY exciting guest post from one of my favourite medieval authors - then there’ll be a subscriber thread on Wednesday, another post at some point, and a podcast episode, I think back in Cambridge, on Friday.

See you round the way,

Dan x