Mesa history: Remembering when May Day was a thing
Maypole dances where ribbons are entwined around a tall wooden pole date back hundreds of years
- May Day has roots going back to at least Roman times
- Romans and succeeding generations observed the day with rituals, festivals, dances and flowers
- May Day observances were on the wane by 1971
May Day is just two days away. Say what?
It’s a holiday that is not much celebrated anymore. No one gets the day off.
But that was not always the case, particularly for school children.
May Day has roots going back to at least Roman times when the day represented, more or less, the mid-point between the first day of spring and the commencement of the summer solstice — an important milestone in the agricultural year.
Romans and succeeding generations and cultures observed the day with a variety of rituals, festivals, dances and flowers. And the Maypole.
When is the last time you celebrated May Day?
If you are of a certain age, you probably remember it as a kid. Today it has mostly faded into memory.
1899 celebration in Mesa
But that certainly was not the case on May 1, 1899, when Mesa was at the center of a grand celebration.
“At an early hour yesterday morning there began an air of activity in this city (Phoenix),” The Arizona Republican reported, “ and the streets were filled with youngsters and oldsters all awaiting the time for the engine to toot announcing the calling of all hands to the special train for Mesa.
“The first train of nine cars, all filled to the brim, pulled out exactly at 9 o’clock. It was soon followed by a train of five cars, and a little later a third section was sent out.
“Altogether about 1,500 excursioners left Phoenix … for Daley’s Grove … where the combined May Day and Dewey Day were celebrated. Tempe and Mesa folk joined in the festivities.”
Just across the street from the depot at Sirrine and Third Street, Daley’s Grove was later renamed Rendezvous Park.
In 1971 W. Earl Merrill, a chronicler of Mesa history, wrote about 91-year-old Wright P. Shill, a pioneering Mesa family member, who still remembered “the arrival of special trains carrying the people from Phoenix and Tempe, and the crowds that lighted at the depot…just across from the scene of the festivities.”
"We all went out to celebrate such days as…May Day,“ Shill said, “with its Queen and the braiding of the Maypole.”
Maypole dances where ribbons are entwined around a tall wooden pole date back hundreds of years. Most schools erected a pole for the day.
A year later, at the dawn of the 20th century, the Mesa Free Press reported on plans for another May Day celebration: “A good program will be rendered in the morning at the Mormon tabernacle, and at 2 p.m. there will be a children’s party at the Co-Op Hall.
“The Mesa Brass Band will have a grand ball in the evening. Proceeds go to the band. …”
In 1971, with May Day observances on the wane, Merrill observed, “How different is our modern, sophisticated society of today, where few participate in communal attempts at holiday observance … otherwise (spending) their holidays in individual pursuits.”
Reach historian Jay Mark firstname.lastname@example.org