#TBT in the Archives 5/4/17: May Day

Celebrating the end of winter, the blooming of flowers, warm temperatures, and summer is nothing new. At Shippensburg in 2017, students flock to the red and blue lawn chairs scattered across campus, enjoy meals outside, and up their runs or cycling sessions outside.

Past students at Shippensburg also marked the coming of spring and summer, but with a bit more pomp and celebration. The annual May Day festivities included dancing, royalty, theater, and festivities on campus until the mid-1950s.

May Day Queen and her court, c. late 1940s.

Traditionally, May Day has been celebrated with a variety of activities. Children gather flowers to keep or bestow on others in celebration of spring, and May Poles are decorated with colorful streamers, which are wrapped around the pole by dancers.

Child attendants were regular members of Cumberland Valley State Normal School's May Day celebrations.

At Shippensburg, May Day also included the crowning of a May Queen (a senior woman) and her court of attendants (two from each class). With the exception of a few years, May Day was an annual campus event from the early 1900s until the 1950s. By the 1930s, celebrations included dramatic presentations, often of Shakespeare plays, and entire programs of dance related to the year's theme.

This Shippensburg State Teachers College May Day program features a print of a dancing girl celebrating nature.

In 1936, May Day was held in the SSTC Shakespeare Amphitheater, located generally where the Little Red Schoolhouse is today. The Campus Reflector reported the event was the first for the newly constructed outdoor gathering space and featured three Shakespeare plays as part of the festivities.

Dances during the 1920 May Day Fete.

In 1946, the theme of May Day was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and dances punctuated the acts of the play's presentation. In 1951, the theme was "Una Fiesta Mexicana," and dances were based on aspects of Mexican history.

Program for 1951's "Una Fiesta Mexicana."

Though May Day festivities ended in the 1950s, spring celebrations at Shippensburg have not, though they've taken different forms over the past 60 years.

Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections has plenty of photos and information about historic May Day programs as well as other spring celebrations on campus. To find out more, schedule an appointment at specialcollections@ship.edu.


Sources:
Campus Reflector, April 8, 1936
Class Files, 1933, 1934, 1946, 1951-1954, Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections, Shippensburg, PA.
Record Group 30, Box 4, May Day file and May Day fete file, Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections, Shippensburg, PA.