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 News
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MFS News May 4, 2010 QUADRENNIAL MAY DAY CELEBRATION TO BE HELD FRIDAY, MAY 7
Detailed Schedule and Activity Map Festivities kick off at Noon with a parade of classes departing from in front of the Lower School. Opening ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. at the "May Day Amphitheater," located on the athletic fields. The May King and Queen will be crowned at this time. Following the opening ceremonies, a wide range of activities will be offered, including theatrical performances, human chess, a religious pilgrimage educating students about various religious faiths, a robotics joust and much, much more. Festivities culminate at 2:20 p.m. with the May Pole Dance performed by members of the Class of 2010. As is also tradition, at 1:00 p.m., students at will present Pyramus & Thisbe, a Roman myth about a forbidden romance which served as the basis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Records indicate that the play, a long-standing part of Elizabethan entertainment, was first performed at a Moorestown Friends School May Day in 1938. A professional jugglers troupe, The Give and Take Jugglers will also perform for the MFS community. Many MFS alumni are expected to return to campus for the event, which coincides with Alumni Weekend. May Day is based on an ancient Roman festival that lasted from late April to early May, in which Romans offered flowers to Flora, their goddess of spring. The Romans brought that custom to all the European lands they conquered, making May Day a worldwide event. By the Middle Ages, it became especially popular in England, where people rose early in the morning to “bring in the May.” They gathered flowers and tree branches to decorate their homes and later went to the town square where the May Pole -- often over 100 feet tall -- was raised. As a woman representing the May Queen presided over the ceremony, dancers held the streamers that fell from the top of the pole and circled around it, weaving the streamers into tight patterns. These pre-Christian agricultural festivals were intended to ensure fertility of the crops. At Moorestown Friends School, May Day has been observed since 1912. Beginning in the 1950s, it changed from an annual event to a rotating celebration, sometimes once every two years and, more recently, every four years. It has traditionally been modeled after a May Day of the Elizabethan Period in England. Members of this year’s senior class will perform the May Pole Dance, accompanied the Upper School Symphonic Ensemble, directed by Arts Department Chair Brian Howard. The King and Queen are randomly selected from those who express interest in the roles. The Queen and King will be crowned at 12:45 p.m. The ceremonial court presides over the May Day events. Preschoolers costumed as woodland fairies and elves will present flowers to the court, another longstanding tradition at MFS in which the school’s youngest students honor those who are graduating. The May Pole Dancers are seniors Julia Applegate, Gianya Breland, Krystina Carpenter, Clara Fischer, Samantha Kay, Katya-Denae Lilley, Sarah Madamba, Jacob Montgomery, Heather Moore, Nicolette Olivieri, Andrew Rosenbach and Arianne Taormina. Their dance is choreographed by retired MFS Science Teacher and former School Committee Member Neil Hartman and current Director of Annual Giving Kristy Embrack. Among the activities during the afternoon (from 1:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.) are:
It will be the third May Day as Head of School for Larry R. Van Meter, who graduated from Moorestown Friends School in 1968, and served as a page to the court as a Lower Schooler. Other quadrennial celebrations at MFS are the Mock Primary Election and New Jersey Day.
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110 E. Main Street Moorestown, NJ 08057-2949 Phone: (856) 235-2900 |
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