Mayday, Mayday

[Robert Booth]

Mayday has come and gone, and, following the other thread, I noticed that no Mayday celebrations were observed here (western Oregon) at all. Talking with people here at my school, I found that among the older folks, Mayday had been celebrated with lots of traditional activities: May Poles, Parades, Queens and courts.

 

As the people I asked got younger, it seemed that the awareness of the traditions faded, until the very youngest woman here on staff, at 26, knew almost nothing at all about the old celebrations. Kind of sad.

 

I wonder whether people in other parts of the USA have preserved more of the traditions than those of us in the West? I'm sure that all over the English speaking world, and other places inhabited by or colonised by the Europeans have had these traditions; have they survived any better there than here?

[Larry Stout]

I'm not aware that anyone here in central Illinois paid any attention at all to May Day. I guess I should modify that, since I made a point to play through three versions of the tune The First of May, but that was in my study and I don't think anyone was listening!

[Mark Evans]

Wouldn't hold out much hope here in New England either.

 

As late as the 70's here at the jobsite the young ladies would have a May Pole, parade and a queen. It's all just a memory now. Why at session we didn't even lift a pint to May Day (national politics had glum and grouchy).

[John Sylte]

Here in North Idaho I am aware of Mayday only from a maypole dance our 3rd grade teacher coordinated (in 1983!). Nowadays, it's all about Cinco de Mayo... Mas cerveza por favor!

[jdms]

Wouldn't hold out much hope here in New England either.

 

As late as the 70's here at the jobsite the young ladies would have a May Pole, parade and a queen. It's all just a memory now. Why at session we didn't even lift a pint to May Day (national politics had glum and grouchy).

 

Well, it's not quite true that there's nothing in New England--try going a little farther east...

 

Several Morris teams, revelers from Harvard's all-night May Day Eve Ball (I think that's what they call it) and various onlookers gather at the Cambridge end of the Weeks Footbridge at dawn. There's a (portable) maypole in addition to all the Morris dancing. The festivities move in procession to the Lowell Quad on the Harvard campus around 7 (this was a bit cramped this year, as they'd just re-seeded the lawn), and then up to the plaza in front of Holyoke Center in Harvard Square. It's been going on for some time now, and participants range in age from the single digits to numbers I wouldn't dare to guess. They do (as far as I know) lack a Queen of the May.

 

jdms

[Jim Besser]

I wonder whether people in other parts of the USA have preserved more of the traditions than those of us in the West? I'm sure that all over the English speaking world, and other places inhabited by or colonised by the Europeans have had these traditions; have they survived any better there than here?

 

While Mayday is not celebrated in any official way here in Washington (too red tinged for our hypersensitive politics) , there are plenty of events just below the radar.

 

On Friday I played for a big private school's annual Mayday celebration. There was a very elaborate and well done Maypole dance and many of the traditional spring carols, all performed by very enthusiastic middle school kids, plus a very energetic Morris dance by the kids and a less energetic dance by some of the teachers.

 

On Mayday itself the Foggy Bottom Morris Men hosted two other local sides for a sunup stand in a Washington suburb, then danced near the Capitol.

 

And on Saturday I'll be playing at the very elaborate Mayday festivities in Shepherdstown, W.Va, an event that seems to involve the entire town.

 

So while Mayday may be largely invisible to most folks here, it wasn't absent from the Washington scene.

[Hooves]

In California I have not heard much mention of May Day,although we do celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5th).

 

I think most people who go to Reniassance fairs and the like probably are aware of "May Day", however I always think of the classic film "The Wickerman", and not the crummy remake mind you, when May Day is mentioned.

[Mark Evans]

In California I have not heard much mention of May Day,although we do celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5th).

 

I think most people who go to Reniassance fairs and the like probably are aware of "May Day", however I always think of the classic film "The Wickerman", and not the crummy remake mind you, when May Day is mentioned.

 

 

Ah yes, I have some very interesting memories of working as a costumer and performer with the Northern California Reniassance Fair and Gold Rush Days in Novato during the spring and summer of 87'. Too old to survive that sort of fun now .

[hielandman]

Yesterday at the school I work at, several other teachers and I (all around 50) discussed Mayday, and the lack of knowledge and celebration of it by young people. Occaisionally a homebrew club I belong to, and play for, has a Mayfest, based on mayday celebrations(they are called NYFOAM-North Yeast Fellowship of Ale and Mead! a fun bunch of people!), but not every year. In 1999('98?), my partner and I were hired to play on a Sat. afternoon at a nursing home for someones birthday, and as it happened to fall on May 1st, we did a lot of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs songs that day! I don't know how many people got what was going on, but we had a great time!

 

BTW, can anyone remember the Maypole song? I can't, though I remember singing it as we went round the maypole when we were kids!

 

Take care,

Don

Edited May 2, 2007 by hielandman

[bellowbelle]

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, the tradition (at least as was held by the school teachers) was to make a pretty May basket and hang it on a neighbor's doorknob, ring the bell and then hide while they found it.

 

I guess that tradition died out because now too many people have mean watchdogs! Parents work hard to train their kids not to ring stranger's doorbells (and neighbors are often strangers, or....some are just strange!).

 

I have a little basket somewhere that a little neighbor gave me about...over 15 years ago, I guess. That's the last I heard of May Day!

[JimLucas]

I wonder whether people in other parts of the USA have preserved more of the traditions than those of us in the West? I'm sure that all over the English speaking world, and other places inhabited by or colonised by the Europeans have had these traditions; have they survived any better there than here?

There are a number of different traditions associated with May 1st. From my American childhood I remember maypoles and dances, organized either by the school or simply by some interested parties, but nothing organized by a larger community or town, and no crowning of a queen or other competitions.

 

Then I remember learning about the ("Communist") Soviet military displays, and I thought them terrible corruption of what I considered to be a day to welcome spring.

 

Even later I learned of those folks who consider it a day to celebrate the worth of working men and women, perhaps communist, but neither Soviet nor military.

 

And then as a Morris dancer, I learned to associate it with raising a maypole at dawn in New York City's Riverside Park, or simply with Morris tours in some other places.

 

Here in Denmark it's not a full-day holiday, but all wage earners are entitled to take a half day off, if they wish. Many of those in the Copenhagen area gather in a large public park, where there are basically two celebrations:

... "Red" events and displays in one area, including a sound stage, and various people celebrating in their various ways.

... Less politically specific events and displays (though not completely apolitical) in another area, also with a sound stage, and lots of people celebrating in their variou wayss.

 

Many of those coming to the park on May Day are there simply to celebrate, without any particular philsophical or political axe to grind. It's a big party.

 

Though it's more than a decade since I've been in New York for May 1st, I'm fairly sure that Morris-related May Day celebrations still happen at various locations in New York and its surroundings (Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, "upstate"). I'd guess the same is true of Seattle and various other cities and towns.

 

Do the Morris dancers still greet May Day in Brattleboro, VT? I remember being told by someone there that they personally remembered the times before Morris dancers first appeared in Brattleboro, then the time when people started asking whether they would be appearing again on May Day, and eventually a time when there were children whose parents had never known a time without the Morris dancers.

[John Wild]

This year I found a novel way to "celebrate" May Day. I was on my way to participate in the Kettle Bridge Clogs procession, when my car ground to a halt and I had to be towed home. I spent the rest of the evening in a local pub, which was busier than usual because there was a large projection screen showing a football match, which some seemed to think was important.

 

- John Wild

[Freeda Reed]

Mayday has come and gone, and, following the other thread, I noticed that no Mayday celebrations were observed here (western Oregon) at all. Talking with people here at my school, I found that among the older folks, Mayday had been celebrated with lots of traditional activities: May Poles, Parades, Queens and courts.

 

As the people I asked got younger, it seemed that the awareness of the traditions faded, until the very youngest woman here on staff, at 26, knew almost nothing at all about the old celebrations. Kind of sad.

 

I wonder whether people in other parts of the USA have preserved more of the traditions than those of us in the West? I'm sure that all over the English speaking world, and other places inhabited by or colonised by the Europeans have had these traditions; have they survived any better there than here?

[Freeda Reed]

There were events commemorating May Day last Sat., Sun, and Mon. at the

Socialist Labor Hall in Barre, Vermont.