Brewer's: Knots of May

The children's game. “Here we go gathering nuts of May” is a perversion of “Here we go gathering knots of May,” referring to the old custom of gathering knots of flowers on May-day, or, to use the ordinary phrase, “to go a-Maying.” Of course, there are no nuts to be gathered in May.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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