While there’s still a bank holiday on the first Monday of May, there are no longer the celebrations that used to be part of the calendar for residents of Scotland’s Capital.
Arthur’s Seat was the centre of May Day, with crowds attending a religious service taking place at the summit each year.
Meanwhile, tradition says that if you get up early and wash your face in the morning dew on on Arthur’s Seat on May Day you will benefit from a flawless complexion for the rest of the year.
The practice still takes place to a lesser extent today, but 50 years ago it saw scores of young women make the ascent at first light.
Processions would often take place on Princes Street, while the day was also popular with campaigners looking for publicity for their cause.
More recently the Beltane Fire Festival has held on the evening of May eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's Calton Hill.
Here are 20 pictures to take you back to May Day in Edinburgh over half a century ago.
1. Following tradition
Girls from Liberton School wash their faces in the dew on Arthur's Seat on May Day 1963 (left-right) Alison Kerr, Carole Macdonald, Maureen Robertson, Janis Williams, Catherine Clelland, Alison Sylvester and Anne Johnston. Photo: Unknown
2. Miners allowed
Crowds at the May Day Miners' Gala in Holyrood Park in 1956. Photo: Unknown
3. Sporting speech
Tom Oswald MP gives the May Day address at the New Meadowbank Festival of Unity and Sport. Photo: Unknown
4. Talking politics
Labour MP Harold Wilson speaking to the crowds at the Miners' Day Rally in Holyrood Park in 1955. Photo: Unknown