This week’s photos are from a May Day festival held in 1928 on campus.
May Day is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival celebrated on the first of May and dates back to origins in ancient Rome. The festivities involve dancing, singing, and cake as people welcome the change in season.1
One very widely known dance of the holiday is the Maypole dance which might originally have been part of a historic fertility ritual. A maypole would be set up for the day and people would merrily dance around the pole clad with colorful streamers and ribbons.1
The personification of the May Day holiday and springtime is the May Queen. She is a girl who wears a white gown to symbolize purity and is crowned with flowers. She begins the May Day celebrations and makes a speech before the dancing begins.1
Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Women’s Recreation Wednesday!
Sources
Photos courtesy of UG 69 (University of Idaho Women’s Recreation Association Photographs)