Today is May Day, the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. In pre-Christian Europe, May Day celebrated springtime fertility with festive community gatherings, and the tradition has continued into the Christian era. Later, European settlers to America brought May Day celebrations across the Atlantic.
Here in North Carolina, May Day was especially celebrated on college and university campuses by crowning a May Queen and sometimes even by dancing around a May pole.
The May Queen and her court at Bennett College. From the 1963 edition of the Bennett Bell, the Bennett College yearbook.
When Montreat College was a women’s college, students sometimes dressed as both male and female members of the May Court. From the
1936 edition of
The Sundial, the
Montreat College yearbook.
May pole dancers at Montreat College would weave over and under each other until the ribbons were tightly braided around the May Pole. From the
1936 edition of
The Sundial, the
Montreat College yearbook.