Unlike Easter and Valentine's Day, May Day is becoming a "vanishing tradition." When I was a child, it was still a custom in schools to hold a May Day dance, with every class performing a folkdance and the oldest class performing a traditional May Pole dance. That custom, sadly, seems to have disappeared, as have May Queens, May Poles, flower baskets hung upon doorknobs, and more. Perhaps it is partly because the Victorian perception of May Day and May Queens embodied a distinctly Victorian view of innocence and femininity that was already vanishing even then!

May-Day Celebrations (Illustrated London Almanack, 1845)

May: May-Day Games, by Thomas Miller (Illustrated London Almanack, 1849)

Going A-Maying (Leisure Hour, 1868)

Mr. Ruskin's May Day Festival at Whitelands College, by J.A. Owen (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

An interesting look at traditional "maying" festivities in Victorian times.

May-Day Customs, by Annie Kemm (Girl's Own Paper, 1882)

History and folklore of May Day.

May-Day in France, by Annie Kemm (Girl's Own Paper, 1883)

"In spite of the Revolution," old customs such as May-Day still linger in the French countryside.

Professor Ruskin's May-Day Festival, by the Rev. J.P. Faunthorpe (Girl's Own Paper, 1889)

The procession of the May Queen.

May Queens, by Rev. W. Dallow (The Strand, 1892A)

May Queens, May-Poles and other May-Day customs of "Old Cheshire."

Welsh Queens of the May, by M. Dinorben Griffith (The Strand, 1898B)

Every year in Llandudno, a "sweeter, daintier little maiden, clad in royal robes, is for one brief day fêted, cheered, and worshipped by enthusiastic thousands."