The People of Hastings Still Do May Day the Traditional Way

May Day is a bullshit holiday thought up by a bunch of heathens in the BC days. Originally a celebration of spring, it’s now primarily an excuse for Europeans to be obnoxious and take a day off work. No one cares about the day’s roots anymore, and most of its contemporary observers are screaming anticapitalists and union workers who occasionally throw punches at the police. 

One place in Europe keeping things traditional is Hastings in East Sussex, England, where groups with names like Hannah’s Cat, the Lovely Ladies, and the Gay Bogies meet for a “Jack in the Green” celebration every May Day holiday weekend. This year was no exception, and on Monday a bunch of people dressed in weird pagan costumes held a procession through the town, culminating with a trek to the top of a hill where Jack—an effigy made out of leaves and flowers—is “slain.” The Hastings tradition was revived in 1983, making this year its 30th anniversary. I went along to take some pictures.

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in don't do blackface Hastings May Day England Druids and shit
Appleby Horse Fair has been dubbed the Gypsy Mecca, because every year Romany and Irish traveller families come from miles away to get to the little Cumbrian village to celebrate their culture, meet up with old friends, and haggle for horses. It is the largest fair of its kind in Europe and the last great Gypsy gathering in England. I have always been attracted to the romance of nomadism and therefore wanted to experience for myself a culture that causes so much controversy just by living alongside our own. With the Gypsy council as my base, I slept in a tent and heard young boys rapping, traveller women heatedly discussing their gender’s place in their community, and fortune tellers selling the future for £20. The rest, I photographed.  More photos

Appleby Horse Fair has been dubbed the Gypsy Mecca, because every year Romany and Irish traveller families come from miles away to get to the little Cumbrian village to celebrate their culture, meet up with old friends, and haggle for horses. It is the largest fair of its kind in Europe and the last great Gypsy gathering in England.

I have always been attracted to the romance of nomadism and therefore wanted to experience for myself a culture that causes so much controversy just by living alongside our own. With the Gypsy council as my base, I slept in a tent and heard young boys rapping, traveller women heatedly discussing their gender’s place in their community, and fortune tellers selling the future for £20. The rest, I photographed. 

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in Horses Photography England Romany Traveller
“Wait. Are you straight or gay?” I asked. “I’m not gay. It’s just a British thing.” He licked my ear and moaned. “I went to boarding school. This is just how we say hello in Britain.” My penis told me to let him lick me; my brain told me Super Market was entering some dark turf. I pulled away from the redhead and sprinted out the club. I bypassed the drunk white girls asking me if their accents sounded posh and found the redhead’s friend sitting against a burrito joint’s wall. He waved at me. “Did the redhead lick you?” he asked. I nodded. “He’s the biggest closet case in all of Oxford. He just went to a boarding school in the south. It’s not a British thing at all.” Except it was. —Trying to Understand the English Gays at Oxford

“Wait. Are you straight or gay?” I asked.

“I’m not gay. It’s just a British thing.” He licked my ear and moaned. “I went to boarding school. This is just how we say hello in Britain.” My penis told me to let him lick me; my brain told me Super Market was entering some dark turf. I pulled away from the redhead and sprinted out the club.

I bypassed the drunk white girls asking me if their accents sounded posh and found the redhead’s friend sitting against a burrito joint’s wall. He waved at me. “Did the redhead lick you?” he asked. I nodded. “He’s the biggest closet case in all of Oxford. He just went to a boarding school in the south. It’s not a British thing at all.”

Except it was.

—Trying to Understand the English Gays at Oxford

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in England Oxford Gay Straight Making out class system English burritos??