May Day is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and is classed as a public holiday with many people having the day off school or work.
It's the time of the year when the warmer weather arrives (if you are lucky), with people celebrating the coming of summer.
A traditional May Day dance is known as Maypole Dancing. People would cut down young trees and stick them in the ground to mark the arrival of summer. Many school children would practice skipping round the pole for weeks before the big show.
The highlight of the day was the crowning of the May Queen, the human replica of Flora. By tradition she took no part in the games or dancing and sat like a queen in a flower-decked chair to watch over her subjects.
Another traditional dance is Morris dancing. Morris dancers are usually men wearing different clothes depending on the part of the country in which they dance. There are six or eight dancers arranged in two lines or in a circle facing each other. The dancers may carry white handkerchiefs that they shake or short sticks that they bang against each other.
There are many local events going on to celebrate May Day, here are just a few
At Caerphilly Castle they will be firing the mighty siege engines and holding a display of life in the 14th century retinue of John Plantagenet on Sunday and Monday at 11am
Free afternoon of crazy street entertainment for all the family on Monday on the waterfront of Cardiff Bay
There will be singing, dancing, storytelling and stalls at the National History Museum in St Fagans, Cardiff between 10am - 5pm
