May Day, 1950s Style

A description of a typical 1950s school May Day event with links to Pagan roots of customs of this and other holidays.

Flashback, 1950s…. Four room elementary school house with six grades…. Special days celebrated: Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and May Day. The traditions of these special days have Pagan roots. May Day, Beltane, is a major Pagan Fire Festival. Its traditions include those described in Pagan May Day Festival: Beltane, Beltane: Pagan Spring Celebration and German Pagan Roots: May Day Trads.

We children looked forward to May Day. Each grade had its own special program to present. The highlight was the sixth grade girls, dressed in long formal gowns, dancing around the Maypole, a metal one with ribbons hanging from it so they could weave in and out, braiding the staff. A sixth grade May Queen, elected by her classmates, had a court of the other girls.

After the entertainment, an ice cream vendor provided refreshments. There was a “fishing pond,” a person behind a screen, who, when we “fished,” would put prizes on our toy fishing rod hooks. Plastic ducks, numbers on their bellies, “swam” in a small rubber pool. Prizes corresponded to the number on the chosen duck. Cake walk…. A numbered circle was chalked into the asphalt. Music was played and whoever stopped on the number that would be drawn won a cake.

We didn’t know the highlight of the day was based on Pagan tradition, as many other celebrations share. The following articles explore Pagan influence on other holidays.

• Halloween: Pagan Celebration
• Samhain Traditions and Lore
• Mabon, Fall Equinox-Second Harvest
• Lughnasadh: Pagan Celebration
• Pagan Midsummer: Summer Solstice
• Ostara/Easter Celebration
• Pagan Roots of Easter Customs
• Imbolc: Pagan Fire Festival
• Christmas Tree: Symbol of Eternity
• Pagan Yule: Christmas Plants
• Yule Pagan Celebration
• Thanksgiving Pagan Symbolism
• Thanksgiving: Pagan Roots