May Day celebrations can be traced back to the Roman celebration of spring, the Floralia, which began on April 28 and went on for several days. By the 1700's, in England, this festival had evolved into an important village celebration. Young women went into the forests to gather flowers and came back with armfuls of blooming hawthorn, which they called May (hence the line, "go a-Maying"). The May Pole, as powerful a symbol of spring's beginning as the Yule log of the year's end, was raised in the center of the village, decked with herbs, flowers, and bright ribbons. The fairest maid was crowned Queen of the May, and everyone danced.