May Day has survived wars and economic lows, but the fate of the longstanding New Westminster tradition seems uncertain.
In recent years, the school district has introduced a number of changes to the event in an attempt to make it more student-focused, such as having students lead the May Day ceremony and give speeches. Last year, instruction related to the May Day folk and maypole dances was moved outside of school hours.
Because 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of May Day, the school district agreed to continue providing staff resources to plan this year’s event but to move away from this entirely in subsequent years.
“This may be our last May Day draw, and it may not,” said Karen Baker-MacGrotty, coordinator of the Royal Suite. “We need to be sure it continues somehow, some form, some fashion. I am very passionate about that. There are a lot of people in the city that are passionate. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the will of city hall behind you and you don’t have the will of the school district and you don’t have the money, it’s going to be very difficult to continue that.”
Baker-MacGrotty said community members are still waiting for some information from the city and school board about future May Days and are uncertain about the event’s future. She said it’s “very disheartening” for many citizens to think of losing an event that’s been attended by generations of local children.
“That’s an amazing legacy of the citizens of New Westminster’s May Day,” she said. “May Day in the City of New Westminster forms part of our cultural history and heritage. As each generation has passed the traditions to the next, we celebrate this wonderful cultural contribution to Canada.”
Baker-MacGrotty expressed dismay that this “amazing cultural legacy for the Royal City” is now in question.
“Through good times and hard years in New Westminster, and through the Boer War and the Great Depression, two world wars and almost over a century-and-a-half, generation after generation of Royal City citizens have ensured our May Day traditions continue. Not many communities can boast that proud history,” she said. “I believe we can say that the Royal City’s New Westminster May Day is the longest continuous running celebration in the British Commonwealth.”
In response to the school district’s plans to cease its involvement with May Day, a group of local residents formed the May Day Community Association. The Record was unable to reach representatives before deadline.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city’s role over the last decade or so has been to provide in-kind support to allow the May Day event to happen in Queen’s Park, supported by the parks and recreation department, and to support the May Day banquet.
“I think the total in-kind contribution from the city has been around $20,000 a year that the city has provided for the May Day event,” he later told the Record. “I think the city would definitely be open to providing similar support that we have in the past, but recognizing in the future May Day will likely evolve and will probably have to be led by community organizations, given that the school board is not taking on the role that they have done in the past.”
According to Cote, the city hasn’t been approached by whoever might be taking on that organizational role for May Day but it would definitely be open to seeing how the city could support that work.
“But we have not been involved in the work of the school district there,” he said. “We recognize they have some very specific concerns about how it’s impacted their class times and how it fits into their curriculum. That’s been their process and their decision to work through. We will wait to see what the community is interested in organizing.”
