Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 5, 1 Mei 2017 — Where have all the May Day gone? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Where have all the May Day
gone?
f)ijjamie Simpson Steele Maij ()atj onee had an enduring presenee in J la\vai'i's sehools, but todaij we see signs of its demise. Still, we ean often eateh a glimpse of ehildren rehearsing hula in the fields during early spring months, or sehool marquees announcing upeoming Maij ()aq erents. hhis onee commonhj shared perfonnance experience is changing, hutwhij? \Vhere did it eome from, and where is it going?
ORIGINS May Day has its roots in pre-Christian Europe when pagans celebrated the transition from winter to spring. Roman festivals of flowers gave homage to goddess Flora through ritual offerings of milk, honey and garlands. In Sweden, the spring date corresponds with a ritual performance of battle between winter and summer. English druids marked the half-point for the year by dancing around a fire. While these rituals began as sacred measures to insure a healthy harvest, they evolved into joyful celebrations, a day of play to usher in a long summer of work. MAY DAY;S CONVERSION Early Christians perceived these celebrations as wanton and wasteful, and England even banned May Day in the 1600s. Later, as industrialism hit the 19th century, May Day celebrations spurred nostalgic remembrances of a simpler, happier time with images of a pastoral past. French Catholics successfully dedicated the month of May to the Virgin Mary, avoiding implications of pagan fertility rites. The revised holiday began to feature children as symbols of innoeenee, purity and morality.
\IAY 1>\\ IN AMERICA Immigrants brought a secular version of Europe's May Day with them to the American
colonies, but the Puritans held it at bay. The social climate changed over time, and by the end of the 19th century May Queen Festivals were introduced on women's college campuses to reinforce social values and character building. Today in the continental U.S., one family might bring a bouquet of llowers to another on the first of May, but fullhlown community celebrations are rare. May Day plays second
fiddle to Easter and Mother's Day, and eommunal merriment is cast aside in favor of rituals that honor the family and the individual.
\1\\ CELEBRAHONS IN HAWAI'I Unlike the continental U.S., Hawai'i has a strong relationship with May celebrations as an expression of community. Hawai'i's first May festivals showcased its new multi-eth-nie identity at the turn of the century. From 1896 to 1920, the Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Association hosted May pageantry, dancing and games among children of vari-
ous ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In 1907, Punahou School staged an elaborate May Day celebration with a parade of characters associated with medieval Europe such as fairies, milkmaids and court jesters. Another annual event in the early 1900s occurred eaeh May with the Social Meeting of the Daughters of Hawai'i. Hundreds of people eame together at Queen Emma's home in Nu'uanu to chant, sing, dance on the lawn
and reminisce about the old days. While this event does not have formal associations with the Euro-American May Day, its content rellects that of Hawai'i's modern May Day. ISLAND PAGEANTRY An entirely different event gave rise to the spectacle of island princesses; at the tum of the century the Floral Parade, held on Washington's Birthday, presented displays of American patriotism and paraded the territory's growing number of automobiles, whieh were lavishly decorated with llowers. During the 1907 Floral Parade, pā'ū equestrifms annpf a? rf»rvrp£pntatir!n£ nf
the different Hawaiian islands. Audiences applauded this narrative and pageantry, and as a result a range of festivals and parades repeated it for years to eome. \1\\ DAY IS LEI DAY IN HAWAI'I Don Blanding, a poet from Oklahoma, is most often credited for May Day's current form. In 1928, Blanding suggested setting aside a day to celebrate
the tradition of giving and receiving i lei. The Bank of Hawai'i hosted a lei competition and transformed its l lobby into a llower decked stage for | the court. Soon after, the Governor j signed a proclamation stating, "May I Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i." Since then, the City and County of Honolulu has hosted
an annual May Day 1 celebration featuring ; a royal court, Hawai- | ian musicians, hula ' hālau performances, a
llower lei competition and a variety of loeal craft vendors at Kapi'olani Park in Waiklkl for audiences primarily comprised of visitors. This event serves as a model for many school May Day programs.
I()D\\ 'S \1\\ DAY The range of May Day programs in schools today rellects the range of how we perceive our muhiple and intersecting cultures in Hawai'i. May Day school programs often fall on a
continuum of styles, overlapping and combining cultural dances in unique ways. On one end of the spectrum, some May Day programs feature solely Hawaiian protocol and hula. They include both hula kahiko and hula 'auana, with the modern style more prevalent. Schools featuring this style of program send the message that they prioritize Hawaiian culture, although _____ . mueh of the content
comes from a hapa haole era. The next style of performance rellects loeal Hawai'i as a melting pot of ethnicities. Eaeh grade performs a dance, or a medley of dances from a different eulture. While hula still has a presence, these programs highlight other styles, such as fan Hannp
Chinese lion dance or Filipino tinikling. European and U.S. mainland cultures are also represented by waltzes, square dancing or maypole dancing. On the far end of the spectrum, other celebrations feature contemporary American dances such as cowboy stepping, square dancing, hip-hop, jazz, sign-language, break dancing, the mashed potato, the twist and anything accompanied by a Disney song. While these programs may not identify
themselves as May Day programs, they share eommon programmatic structure and traits, and usually
occur in May. KAONA
Beneath the surface, some people see May Day as a way to preserve Hawaiian culture - to ensure all children have an occasion to engage in hula, oli, mele and 'ōlelo as an expression of culture.
To them, it is a day to privilege kanaka maoli. Others see it as a way to develop a multi-cultural Hawai'i with an appreciation for all of the people who made Hawai'i what it is today, especially the plantation era folks who poured their sweat into this soil in order to eall it home. They honor keiki o ka 'āina - all of the children bom and raised in Hawai'i. Yet others see this occasion as a way for children to express themselves through songs and dances with the moves they love in a modern society. These are children with a shared popular culture in a global society. IHE FUTURE OF \I \Y DAY Those who have abandoned May Day have done so for various reasons. For example, Hawaiian charter schools tend to emphasize Makahiki, rather than May Day, as an expression of Hawaiian tradition and identity. Other schools feel so mueh pressure to perform academically that they have deserted May Day altogether in order to concentrate on test preparation, or demonstrations they perceive as more relevant for developing college and career readiness. With 100 years of history, Hawai'i's May Day is experiencing an era of transition that may very well rellect the values, priorities, and ambitions of Hawai'i itself. ■ Jamie Simpson Steele is an assistant professor ofperfortning arts at the University ofHawai.'i. Her dissertation was ti.tled "The May Day Show: Performances of Culture of Hawai'i Elementary School Stages."
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Mary Wong s 4th grade class class ot 61 . May Day 1 953. - Photo: Courtesy ofKohala Puhlie Library Archives
r <f& l Don Blanding and a young performer during Lei Day celebrations, circa 1 935. - Photo: Archives ofBishop Museum, Honolulu
Lei Day 1935 atThomas Square. Photo: Hawai'i State Archives
Honolulu's first Lei Queen Nina Bowman and court in 1 928. - Photo: Honolulu Advertiser
;.f i L i K M From L to R: 2016 Lady-in-waiting, 2010 Lei Queen Jamie Kaohulani Detwiler; 2016 Lei Queen Carol Ana Makana Lani Yamada; and, 2016 Lady-in-waiting, 2007 Lei Queen Manu Anana. - Photo: Courtesy Dave Miyamoto/Dave Miyamoto & Co.
May Day 1953. - Photo: Courtesy of Kohala Puhlie Library Archives