May Day

Subject: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 12:40 PM

Anything happening around Cardiff,South Wales for May Day?.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 01:44 PM

Or around Newmarket, Suffolk?

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Little Robyn
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 03:41 PM

It's all happening in Padstow! (And I'm half a world away.)
OSS OSS! WEE OSS!
Robyn

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Ed.
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 04:07 PM

I'm sorry if this sounds patently obvious, but might I suggest that asking people in your own locale, looking in local newspapers, and maybe doing a google search with relevant words, would be more productive?

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Macha
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 04:12 PM

In seattle I am going to run around sing random folk songs.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 05:18 PM

Tried that you idiot Ed,i am not that stupid!!!!.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: My guru always said
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 06:07 PM

That wasn't very nice Scooby. It's obvious that Ed was only trying to be helpful and being quite apologetic about it at the same time.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 06:11 PM

I'll be doing something with a pole.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Cllr
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 06:21 PM

Im off to see the OSS anyone else at padstow??

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Gareth
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 06:52 PM

Ahhh ! - The spring bank holiday - The frantic cries of "Mayday, Mayday" on CH 16 (VHF) as those who spent the winter fitting out small boats realise that the Sea can be cruel !

Gareth

Support your local unit RNLI

Subject: RE: May Day
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 07:02 PM

I'll be at Padstow too

Subject: RE: May Day
From: LindsayInWales
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 07:48 PM

We (The Widders Welsh Border Morris) are performing at the Irish Club in Bulwark, Near Chepstow, on Monday, 3rd May, and at the New Inn, Pwllmeyric from 7.30pm on Thursday 6th May, and with Cardiff City Morris on 23rd May at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre/Elan Vally Hotel...but...sorry not on May 1st...perhaps Isca Morris are out somewhere on that day?

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 01:20 AM

Sorry Guru but i tried the local scene and newspapers then i went on the net before i came here.I only have local transport to rely on,i would love to go further a field if i could afford too and was allowed to drive.
Except my apoligies Ed.I know you were only trying to help out.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: LadyJean
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 01:27 AM

I'll be in Pittsburgh, but I always listen to the Padstow May song on May 1.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Little Robyn
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 01:36 AM

Our friends in Padstow always telephone us (in NZ) as the Blue Oss goes past their house and we get to say hello to people like Barry Kinsmen who follow the Oss. So Cllr and El Greko, if you're up Dennis Road and you see some people at Tremorva, talking on a phone, come and say hello to me!
Robyn

Subject: RE: May Day
From: jacqui.c
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 02:07 AM

Hastings - my first festival - with Kendall. Hoping to meet lots of other Mudcatters there.

Wherever you are - enjoy the day.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Partridge
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 03:37 AM

I'll be dancing out at a may day green festival with a team called "Out of the West" They have only been formed for 6 weeks and this is there first public performance. Wish us luck!

Pat xx

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Moses
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 04:06 AM

Padstow it is - Ring o Bells tonight if I can get there in time - (Still working in London until mid afternoon and it's a l o n g way!)

It's my first time so be gentle with me please.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: My guru always said
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 04:56 AM

Hope everyone has safe journeys to wherever they're a-Maying.

Anyone in Padstow will bump into Breezy surely - he'll be busking near the sea - interesting conversations there I'll be bound!!

Will someone in the UK please stop doing that raindance or I'll be going to Upton-under-Severn......

Have fun all!

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 04:57 AM

Scooby:
May Day Celebration
1 May 2004
Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans

The summer starts here! Traditionally, May Day marked the start of the summer, and at the Museum of Welsh Life the tradition continues. Cardiff Folk Dance Company will be on site to perform traditional dances and to raise the Maypole, while there'll be a rare chance to enjoy a Mummers' Play, along with a Victorian Fair, puppet shows and craft demonstrations. The Glamorgan Iron Horse Society will also be on site with their collection of vintage machinery.


for more detail see St Fagans Folk Museum (re-named the National Museum of Welsh Life sometime during the last 30 years)

Nigel

Subject: RE: May Day
From: concertina ceol
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 05:14 AM

Weald of Kent Morris have their usual may day tour

5:31 Star & Eagle Goudhurst
6:00 Village Green Goudhurst
6:30 The Vine Goudhurst - for breakfast and beer - £6
8:00 The Vine Goudhurst
9:30 Cranbrook, Church Steps
11:30 Lamberhurst Vineyard
12:45 Elephants Head, Hook Green

And if we are still standing probably the Lord Raglan at Rabbits Cross!

Have a happy may day where ever you are in the world. all times BST.

Check out www.wealdofkentmorris.org.uk for more info

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Schantieman
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 05:38 AM

Southport Swords will (I suppose, although this is hearsay!) be in Southport town centre (near Lady Di's bidet) at 0523 or whenever the sun rises. The Scarisbrick Hotel's beer festival starts at 0600 too!

Steve

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Micca
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 05:41 AM

I am off to Hastings this afternoon with Sorcha, and we hope to "Roll out" TWO new Giants This weekend, and before anyone asks, I dont know why the First public appearance of a Giant is called "Rolling Out" (like an an Aircraft,I suppose) I mean They don't have wheels, (at least mine don't!!) these two are called "Dearg" and "Glás" and I will put pix up of them , with the Morrigán (if I get a chance to take any) after the w/e. Maybe a welcome break from sadder memories and events.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 05:57 AM

I'll be taking my new LOUD 12-string along and will set up busking next to Breezy. Ha! My charity will be DOGS (Distressed Ornery Guitarists of Salonika)

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 06:04 AM

Thanks Nigel,looks like i will have to try and get to St Fagins if i want to celebrate.I will be watching the sun come up in my garden tomorrow morning,if i had tidy transport instead of public i would be going to Caerleon with the local morris side.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 09:07 PM

Well its May Day,so enjoy the day what ever you get upto and also remember its Beltane.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 01 May 04 - 09:44 AM

Just came down off the mountain (Pack Monadnock) where the two local morris teams, Jack in the Green and the Harrisville Morris Women, met and greeted the sunrise. Then to breakfast in Peterborough, NH, where we sang for the early risers. A few more dances outside the diner, then off to a "normal" day.

Allison

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Little Robyn
Date: 01 May 04 - 04:55 PM

It's now 2nd May in NZ.
We had our phone call from Padstow and we heard the band - in the distance - the Blue Oss team has changed the route and now they turn off just before they reach our friend's house. So we didn't speak to any of the Ossers themselves. That's the first time I've missed in 32 years! Still, we caught up on the news.
OSS OSS!
Robyn

Subject: RE: May Day
From: John J
Date: 01 May 04 - 07:43 PM

I went up onto Alderley Edge in Cheshre, NW England at 05:25 in good time to greet the sunrise at 05:37. I met up with my mum who was playing for Chorlton Green Morris, a fine bunch of ladies who meet to dance on the Edge every Mayday morning at sunrise.

I was pleased to see a couple of Manchester Morris on the Edge, one played whilst t'other danced a single jig. The wife (?) of one of the Manchester men was there too, they toasted the sunrise with champagne.....Manchester Morris always were a cut above the rest!

I played a couple of tunes, drank a toast to the Summer, then sang Hal an Tow.

Good luck to you all for the season!

John

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 May 04 - 10:40 PM

Yesterday was my Wheatstone English concertina's 80th birthday, so I had a party. I'd hoped to sing a lot of English songs and think May-ish thoughts, too, but didn't quite get the right crowd. We had lots of funny and more or less off-color songs, instead, so had a good time anyway. Come midnight -- and being up "long before the day-o" -- I did teach 'em sang Hal an Tow (and they also sang happy birthday to me). In this part of the world we don't usually "welcome in the summer" with open arms, so it took some suspension of disbelief.

I made a cake that looked like a concertina, which I couldn't bear to cut. It had taken me about 10-12 hours total to make, and was quite detailed, so we just admired it most of the evening. The diehards who hung in until midnight got to see me cut it and got to sample it.

During the day I taught my first grade music classes to dance "The Sweets of May".

~ Becky in Tucson, Arizona

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Joe_F
Date: 02 May 04 - 12:58 AM

Hooray, hooray, the first of May!
Outdoor fucking begins today.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: *Laura*
Date: 02 May 04 - 01:28 PM

I was down at Padstow - went to Bodmin folk club the night before - AND the Ring O'bells, so I'm happily 'folked up!' hehe. Happy Mayday - hope everyone had a good time!

Unite and Unite and etc...

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,Gin
Date: 02 May 04 - 04:44 PM

For those of you sitting on the edge of your computer chairs still wondering..."Out of the West" triumphed amazingly dancing their first (but hopefully not their last) day out in Dewsbury on May Day. If you live in the area I suspect they'd like even more members! From the viewpoint of an itinerant musician, they performed three very creditable dances.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 May 04 - 05:02 PM

Well, it's not May Day anymore, but there should be plenty of folky thing on May Bank Holiday on Monday.

Round our way there is Standon in Hertfordshire, where they close down the street and there's a maypole, and dancing and suchlike, as well as a steam fair and a boot fair, and stalls in the street and a flower festival, and likely enough a session in the pub.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST, Vadontcha Bugarov
Date: 02 May 04 - 05:05 PM

Da, ve have big parade in Red Sqaure, many tanks da?

Subject: RE: May Day
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 May 04 - 07:42 PM

Niet, these days...

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 May 04 - 10:31 PM

Just returned from Chicago where, among other things, I observed May Day properly by visiting—together with my son-in-law and granddaughters—the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument in Chicago's Waldheim Cemetery.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Amos
Date: 02 May 04 - 11:03 PM

Early in 1886 labor unions were beginning a movement for an eight-hour day. Serious trouble was anticipated and on May 1 many workers struck for shorter hours. An active group of radicals and anarchists became involved in the campaign. Two days later shooting and one death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Harvester plant when police tangled with the rioters.


On May 4 events reached a tragic climax at Haymarket Square where a protest meeting was called to denounce the events of the preceding day. At this meeting, while police were undertaking to disperse the crowd, a bomb was exploded. Policeman Mathias J. Degan died almost instantly and seven other officers died later. Eight men were finally brought to trial and Judge Joseph E. Gary imposed the death sentence on seven of them and the eighth was given fifteen years in prison. Four were hanged, one committed suicide and the sentences of two were commuted from death to imprisonment for life. On June 26, 1893, Governor John P. Altgeld pardoned the three who were in the penitentiary.

The Haymarket Riot statue, a 9-foot bronze of a Chicago policeman of the 1880's, was erected in 1889 near the original site of the riot on Randolph Street near Halsted street as a tribute to the Chicago policemen who lost their lives in the Haymarket square riot of 1886. In 1892, the park district shifted it to Union Park and later relocated it to another spot in Union Park. In 1957 the statue was moved to the northeast corner of the bridge over the Kennedy expressway at Randolph Street. In October, 1969, and again in October of 1970 the statue was blown off of its pedestal in unsolved explosions. In January of 1972 it was moved to the lobby of police headquarters at 1121 S. State Street. Later it was moved to the courtyard of the Police Academy at 1300 W. Jackson Blvd.

(From:http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/haymarket.html)

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 May 04 - 11:47 PM

Thanks, Amos. Many people around the globe don't realize that the Haymarket debacle in Chicago on May 1, 1886 is the reason May 1 is set asside in almost every country (except the US) to honor labor. The eight-hour day finally became a reality in the US in 1935; not so much because of any sense of justice but because the country was in the depths of the Great Depression and the eight-hour day was expected to help expand employment.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 03 May 04 - 03:10 AM

Even i learnt from that piece of the thread Thank you Amos,it was very interesting.Also yours Mark,i did not know it was called Labour Day.Enjoy the Bank Holiday Monday,even though it looks bleak here in Wales.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,Stephen of Hampshire
Date: 03 May 04 - 04:01 AM

Half a dozen Morris sides greeted the dawn in the vilage square Wickham, Hampshire for dance and song, then to breakfast at the camp and 2 coaches off to dance at various sites in the New Forest and Portsmouth way.

We sang Hal an Tow and danced more in the evening before going to the pub for a simgaround.

All very well going to Padstow, but as common ground say, these big events like Padstow May day, Lewes bonfire night etc get overdone at the expense of building up more local events where you live. We could have done with a crowd bigger than 8 in Wickham square!

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,Lindswidder
Date: 03 May 04 - 04:08 AM

Well in my bit of South Wales it's "Chepstock" festival today, and it's raining, of course, being a Bank Holiday, come and see "The Widders" Welsh Border Morris perform at 4pm. Scooby couldn't you get a train from Cardiff to Chepstow and pick up a taxi?

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST, Mikefule
Date: 03 May 04 - 04:45 AM

In went out with another Dolphin Morris Man to join New St. George Morris outside Belvoir Castle. We had no crowd at all, except the man from the cafe who came looking for us because he'd been expecting us to dance inside the castle grounds.

Years ago, I danced in the sunrise as a guest of Foresters. Again, no crowd at all.

It's all jolly good fun, but a totally bogus tradition... or should I say, a NEW tradition? Can't expect the public to turn up in droves at stupid o'clock on a cold May morning to watch half an hour of Morris dancing. I have noticed that when Dolphin's first tour of the year is on May 1st (we dance out on Thursdays) we get a slightly more interested reaction from the public. One bloke even broke his stride as he walked past.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,Lindswidder
Date: 03 May 04 - 05:20 AM

Well I haven't been to the May morning celebrations on Brackley Market Square for a number of years now, (although I have driven up twice from South Wales to be there) but Brackley Morris dances the sun up every May Day, with a host of other sides, one of the pubs (The Red Lion) has an early morning special licence, and is usually packed as they are serving breakfast too, and the crowd of spectators is usually sizeable

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 03 May 04 - 06:14 AM

Linswidder,if i could get out of LLantrisant into Cardiff i would come along.I love the Wye VAlley and Chepstow,But enjoy the day and i be thinking of you all.

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,Lindswidder
Date: 03 May 04 - 07:35 AM

Thanks Scooby I am sure we will have a great time, despite the dodgy weather up here, still I expect there will be a bar so we may as well get wet inside as well as out :)

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 03 May 04 - 12:54 PM

Well our now defunct Morris Team was reconvened for one day only at May Day celebrations at the Black Dog home of the up and coming Yorkshire Gathering - many of us hadn't danced for nearly six years so a lot of huffing and puffing but good fun. And who'd have thought we'd have had a weekend of glorious warm weather and sunshine!!

Subject: RE: May Day
From: breezy
Date: 03 May 04 - 02:20 PM

amongst those night singing at Padstow this year were Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, Martin Carthy, George Papavgeris, Cllr, Moses, Tony Dean, Dave Watts and John

the ringers was a non event on the eve

on the night 'Little Moe' got everyone organised and it was a good sing

the day was overcast

The 2nd day of may ws beautiful and Larry mac walked out round the harbour.

Poochie done good

whose Poochie? I hear you say

oss oss wee oss

Subject: RE: May Day
From: GUEST,jennifer
Date: 03 May 04 - 04:11 PM

There was a decent crowd at Castle Field in Laxton, Notts. Enough to keep a couple of barbeques going, anyway. And we left after an hour (five year old got too cold/bored to look for any more mediaeval skeletons in rabbit burrows) and they were still going strong. Rattlejag, Lincoln and Micklebarrow and two representatives of another side? Not sure. The local paper consigned the advance coverage to the children's page but here was a reporter with a camera exhorting strange poses so there might be more this week!

Subject: RE: May Day
From: Cllr
Date: 03 May 04 - 07:33 PM

oss oss