In the first part of 20th century, festivals celebrating May Day were popular spring celebrations, especially at women’s colleges, including the North Carolina schools: Bennet College, Salem College, Flora McDonald College and Women’s College at Greensboro (now UNC-G.) Meredith College was no exception.
During the earliest years of Meredith College, May Day celebrations were apparently simple events - if anything happened at all. It was at least a day to note: in the 1905 yearbook, a calendar of events for the past academic year simply lists “May Day” on May 1st, but there is no description of what that entailed.
More attention, perhaps, was given to annual Field Day celebrations sponsored by the Physical Education Department. Possibly the two events eventually or by necessity overlapped. Held in early May, individuals and classes demonstrated the athletic accomplishments on "teeter ladders," flying rings, ropes, chinning bars and in the high and low jumping, dumbell drills and Indian clubs learned in their physical education classes. The students competed for blue or red ribbons and monogram letters in these gymnastic exercises, plus in races and games. As part of the celebrations, the day might also include a “May Pole Drill” and a “May Day Gallop.” The accompanying photo from the 1918 Oak Leaves shows a May Pole on the downtown campus near the Main Building.
Things changed after the campus moved from downtown to the “Tucker Farm” location on the outskirts of Raleigh. The May 27, 1927 Twig declared that this was the year of a true celebration, one not confined to the cramped grounds of the downtown campus. While still under the auspices of the physical education department, the field day exercises transitioned to a celebration of spring and beauty. Meredith College now had room for the procession of the May Court (made up of representatives from each class), “aesthetic” dance performances in appropriate costumes, flower girls and a crown bearer, the winding of the May Pole by the freshmen class, and finally the coronation of the Queen on her throne.
This festival would be the template for decades of May Days to come. In the 1930s, the daily festivities also came to include a breakfast presentation to the college president of a basket of flowers and a song performance by the seniors. The “little sisters” of even classes would place May Day baskets on the doors of their “big sisters.” Year after year, the Oak Leaves and the Twig contain photographs and accounts of the annual May Day court and celebrations, taking place in the Grove among the oak trees (where the lake is now), on the central quadrangle, or in the amphitheater.
Over the years, updates to the festivities included the addition of a theme, a tie-in with a Hospitality Weekend for dozens of visiting high school students, a Maid of Honor, short plays, folk and modern dances, a horse show, choral performances, tours of the Home Management House and a fashion show by the Home Economics Department, and even the re-introduction of the May Pole. However, in the changing cultural atmosphere of the late 1960s and '70s, students began to question the appeal of such a seemingly frivolous beauty contest. For a couple years in the early 1970s, the name was changed variously to the "Celebration of Spring Festival" or "Spring Court" or "SPRINGS" and the dancing and themes became decidedly more modern.
In a 1975 editorial in the Twig newspaper, editor Allyn Vogel argues for the abolition of the “pseudo-festival.” She noted that while alumnae were reported to love the event, they were rarely in attendance. That even if the criteria for inclusion on the court was expanded to include “personality, participation and scholarship,” it still required “ten girls in pristine gowns posed on a rostrum” before friends and family. Furthermore, Vogel argued, all tradition, beginning with this one needed to be re-evaluated. Despite, or perhaps because of the changes, after a greatly diminished event in 1975, May Day celebrations ended on the Meredith College campus.
An early Field Day demonstration on the downtown campus.
The 1913 ribbon winners from that year's Field Day, as printed in the 1914 Oak Leaves.
One consistent component of May Day (and Field Day?) celebrations is the winding of the Maypole. This celebration, on the old downtown campus, was typically danced by the sophomore class. In 1918, students wore middy blouses and skirts, which were both practical and linked to World War I efforts.
Gertrude Royster's handwritten instructions for winding the May Pole.
Snapshots of the 1920 Field Day as assembled in the Oak Leaves.
May Queen and child attendant, 1928.
May Day toy soldiers marching in a formation, 1934.
May Day dancers were part of the festivities until the early 1970s. This is from the 1934 performance.
A view of the 1944 festivities and the attendant crowd. This location was likely the oak grove on campus. The May Day activities were held in various sites on campus.
Dancers, 1947.
Maypole dance, 1949.
Folk dances were part of the festivities, here in the auditorium.
The queen and her court, always in white dresses, 1955.
For at least one year, the Maypole dance was attempted with horses from the equestrian program.
The May Court in 1950 recalled the "Southern Belle." Styles changed every year to reflect what was considered a romantic style of dress.
Spectators to the festivities in the 1950s. Note the camera mounted on top of the bus.
The 1956 May Queen is crowned, possibly by the Maid of Honor.
The 1957 Maypole dance, held in the original quadrangle.
A rather elegant court from the 1960s.
A May Day / Spring Day in the amphitheater.
This cartoon appeared in the April 25,1968 Twig newspaper: a freshman approaches a banner welcoming her class to May Day, while an older student reads from a pile of serious textbooks. The caption, "Their First Impression?" suggests that the not all were happy with the tradition.
The 1969 May Queen and court. At this time, the big, floppy hat was very popular for dressy occasions.
The theme of the 1970 May Day was "The Sensational Sixties," which was described as "an era of youth, violence, war, fashion, space, tragedy, force and change." The entertainments were titled "Fashion," "Dances of Mourning," and "Space," with the music of Tiny Tim, the "Hippies," "Psychodelics," [sic] and "Radicals." It is all a bit difficult to imagine.
The Queen and her Maid of Honor, early 1970s.
This doublespread photo of the SPRINGS festival appeared in the 1974 Oak Leaves. The photographer included the Queen and her court, the dancers and the crowd. Compared to preceding years, attendance was small, despite it taking place during Parent's Weekend. There was a last court in 1975, but the festivities themselves appear to have been reduced.
In this Twig editorial from May 1, 1975. The writer, "AKV" takes on each reason she had heard for maintaining "Springs Court" (the successor to May Day) - and still considers it an "outdated and unrepresentative institution." She concludes that "Tradition is not immutable. Perhaps rather than look to old traditions, we should formulate new ones in the light of changing commitments of the Meredith community." This issue of the Twig also included the results of a survey among students as to the continuation of the traditional festival; most were in favor of further May Days, but with revisions.
To read the entire article go to: https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/2015236797/1975-05-01/ed-1/seq-2/
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Meredith College
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