Well, in Shepherdstown the Morris dancers will gather at the Rumsey Monuement on a bluff which overlooks the upper Potomac River and greet the sun.

Then on the 3rd, at 11AM, the Town will host its annual May Day Parade with all of the invited Morris teams. The parade, which is lead by the Town Mayor, dressed in white, and holding the traditional gnarled wooden staff covered with lilac, and features the Green Man, the Unicorn, the Muses, Honorary Fertility Gods, and the Morris teams dancing through the streets, will arrive at the bluffs and plant the Maypole (which is carried in the parade). They will be greeted by drums and digeredoo's. Each invited team will do several dances, interdispersed with homilies, speeches and poems, and a Reinassance morality play. Then instructions will be given to the crowd, and the Maypole will be woven.

For the rest of the day the Morris teams will dance on street corners, at local restaurants (for food) and the Day ends with a Contra dance at the Men's Club. The "Cultural Hub of the Western Hemishere" knows how to do May Day.

Since I do not know how to do "blue clickies", if you want to see lots of pictures from past May Days, go to www.contradancers.com/shepherdstown/ and click on the links for Morris Dancing and previous May Contra dances. (In one of the pictures, I am using a large bodhran tipper on a big bass drum... )