Morris dancing is found throughout Europe and is associated with mummers and mystery plays of the Middle Ages. Different dances are appropriate to the various relgious festivals. A mime of the Eucharist is part of May Day Morris Dances. A dancer called the Cake and Sword Bearer walks among the audience offering pieces of cake borne upon a sword. The cake brings good luck and makes the theme of sacrifice a shared ritual.

The dancers in the Morris Dance dress alike, wear hats to take attention away from their faces and use other disguises or props to hide their personal identities and emphasize their function as religious intermediaries. Dancers always wear bells and ribbons on their boots, which contribute to the effect of thedance.

Some of the traditional dances have religious origins. The Green Garters which is often performed around a Maypole, the Hey (a serpentine movement in which the dancers pass each other in a prescribed way until they all reach their places after first having passed all the other dancers in the set), and Rounds, or circles, have characteristics of religious rituals.