 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
Since New England winters inevitably feel like they’ll never end, it is not suprising that on May 1, 1952, numerous spectators turned out for this May Day celebration, with students from Boston University’s College of Practical Arts and Letters (PAL) participating in a show of fancy to welcome summer. May Day, which is held on the first day of the month, began long ago as a spring festival. In the Roman Empire the holiday centered around the worship of Flora, the goddess of spring. The holiday spread to other parts of Europe and eventually to the United States, where it was less popular. In 1627, an English settler named Thomas Morton, who was fond of drinking and merrymaking, erected a customary Maypole, a tree with the branches removed, in what is now Quincy, Mass., and taught the Native Americans to dance around it. Having angered the area’s Puritans, who felt it was a pagan feast, he was deported back to England. Nathaniel Hawthorne later recounted this event in The Maypole of Merrymount. Photo by BU Photo Services
29
April 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations