May Day

Tom · April 30, 2002, 03:57:05 PM

When I was a little boy, in elementary school, we use to have a May Day celebration to celebrate the coming of Spring. I never really understood the significance of it since Spring, to me, was the starting of Baseball but anyway.... The school teachers made arrangments for May Poles to be set up at the football field. they were 6" or so pipes about 10 ft in length, mounted on old truck rims and painted white. From the top of each pole were tied twenty or more colored streamers.

(Now we would practice this all week and it was a big occassion.)

We were all dressed in a gold tie, short sleeved white shirt and blue trousers, marched in a parade from the school to football field (about 3 miles) where the parents were seated in the stands.

There were some speechs (Lord only knows what about) and we were marched onto the field, boy, girl, boy, girl, etc.

Each of us took a streamer and upon the start of some music, began to dance around the pole and weave in and out, causing a design to be formed on the pole. When we got finished, the music would stop and the parents would all stand up and applaud and we would be marched to the end of the field where we were dismissed to go to our families. After another speaking ceremony of some kind or another the thing was over and we went home, all feeling as if we had accomplished some great feat.

I understand that it was curtailed in my hometown as the society became too sophisticated to follow rituals like this, and I think there was some argument as to its pagan background.

I wonder if kids still do things like this, or have we outgrown it?

CHARLIE · April 30, 2002, 07:15:38 PM

Yep Tom....been there, done that. In Minnesota, the tradition is for small children to go door to door with May baskets that they made to give treats or small gifts to other children in the neighborhood.

RavioliKid · May 01, 2002, 04:04:39 AM

Tom,

I've never done a May Pole dance - I've never even seen one.

I can't imagine marching my class three miles. I used to take kids over to a nearby nature preserve to watch the changing seasons, but I gave that up years ago. I got tired of the whining about having to walk so far. I doubt if it was more than a mile and a half from start to finish.

We did May baskets when we were kids. If we weren't so busy today at school, I'd have them make some.

Happy May to everyone! 8)

DanG · May 01, 2002, 07:18:04 AM

I remember doing the Maypole dance in the 3rd and 4th grades. There would be a number of colored, crepe paper streamers afixed to the top of the pole. The "dancers" would prance around the pole, each holding a streamer, circling alternately in opposite directions, and weaving in and out, so that the streamers were braided onto the pole. I always thought it was stoopid.

Tallahassee had "The May Oak," which was a huge live oak in one of the parks, downtown. The tree died several years ago, and the City spent thousands of $ preserving the stump. It has a commemorative plaque on it describing the many years of May Day celebrations held around it.

I spent some time in Army Aviation, so the term, "MAYDAY" has a less joyous connotation, to me.

Frank_Pender · May 01, 2002, 11:18:59 PM

You are so correct, Rav. The paperwork for the Feds and the State is what finally help to the ot let the door catch me on the way out. I truly miss the children but not the Bureaucratic "stuff".

   For thirty years I was well into the Poetry Unit by this time of the year and carried it on to the close of school. the kids and I published a book of their work every year. So, I reckon that the books and poems they produced became their April, May and June Baskets.

   White cherry blossoms
   Blanketing the Orchard floor
   Cobbler cools slowly

RavioliKid · May 02, 2002, 04:11:10 AM

Frank,

We are just so busy at school - and the kids have their own ideas about what to do!

For instance, I had to go to a meeting on Tuesday morning, so the kids had a sub.

We are doing a study of architecture now, and I left instructions for them to draw pictures of the front of their houses. I worked up a scoring rubric about what I was looking for, and discussed the project with the sub.

Well, I didn't stress that I wanted them to draw the house that they actually live in! I got all sorts of things, including 3D models of houses, complete with landscaping!

For the past day and a half, they have been into making models of houses! Everytime I turn around, it seems they have found a new stash of construction paper in my piles of stuff and there they are, building away!

Our schedule was kind of odd yesterday. We went on a fieldtrip in the morning, and then the afternoon was chopped up into little bits of time, due to the schedule changes. After we finished the "must do" stuff, I just let them work on their buildings!