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May 02, 2008
From the Director 5-2-2008
In the Very, Merry Month of May
Brian Thomas, Director
Are we there yet? Nearly.
The last full month of school is finally here. Hooray! May is named after the Greek goddess Maia who, like her Roman counterpart, Bona Dea, was associated with fertility. No wonder so many of our colleagues are having babies, two due to deliver later this month (Pascale Tooth and Jennifer Franklin). Celebrate!
Every month comes chock full of events and dates. May certainly has its share. Of course, there are those eponymous flowers; they’re the ones that come after April showers. Also, who can forget Mother’s Day? Errr… you better not. May is also the month for horse racing in Kentucky, the hundred and thirty-fourth running (“And they’re off…””). Plus, the Indy 500 is on the Sunday right before Memorial Day.
Horses and cars, horses and cars.
It’s also Cinco de Mayo, not to be confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is September 16th. May 5th brings another cool day that I wished I'd heard about when I was a kid. It’s Children’s Day in Korea and Japan. How children in these countries got their very own day (when I lobbied my own mother as a six year old for one of my own), I’ll never know.
Additionally, May brings a slew of month-long remembrances and acknowledgements. It’s Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, International Awareness for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases Month, and Older Adults Month.
For us at PHS, May mostly means May Festival. May Festival is a celebration of spring, rites of passages, and renewal. Like so many special occasions, the true meaning of this school-wide event represents different things to different people. I asked a bunch of second graders what they thought May Festival meant:
One boy said, “Fun.” Another girl chimed in, “Yeah.” While still another said, “Lemony lemons and candy sticks. That’s what I like.” The same girl who said, “Yeah,” also said, “Yeah, yeah. We like Lemony candy.” One boy said he, "loved to hear the poetry and see the eighth graders go around and around and around the Maypole.” Whatever your favorite parts are (you can like it all, really) come enjoy this Sunday, May 4th and hear some of the best poetry around.
Below you'll find a terrific history of May Fest compiled by Dan Goldensohn, which you should definitely check out. (Just remember that Monday is also Dan’s birthday.)
THE PHS MAY FESTIVAL:
A Few Historical Notes
Founded in 1918, Presidio Hill School has had plenty of time to develop some wonderful traditions. While we enjoy both the performances of our totally modern student body and the pleasure of each other’s company in the here-and-now, today’s May Festival reflects the long history of the school community.
The Festival itself is a celebration of spring, honoring the blossoming of our kids’ lives through their poetry, dances and songs. Through many decades the May Fest has also become a way for us to come together as a community to eat and play and be together.
For more than a quarter century, the Dragon Dance has played a big role in the May Fest. When the school re-opened and re-invented itself after a fire, the dancer Anna Halprin led a dance through the streets that has over time taken on some aspects of the Chinese New Year celebration. The PHS Dragon Dance is led by the tallest Middle Schoolers and the tail is brought up by our smallest kindergartners. Somehow Herbie Hancock has gotten in there too.
No one seems to know when the Virginia Reel became one of the traditions here, but this old dance form allows our kids to play together in such a spirited and communicative way and connects them to many centuries of other dancers. Why “Turkey in the Straw”? Well, why not?
The Maypole Dance is so ancient that it may seem far removed from our modern world: it is a springtime celebration that hearkens back to Shakespeare’s time and before. Children in the U.S. have been dancing it in schools since the 1700’s, and here at PHS it has become the privilege and responsibility of the 8th Graders to end the performance part of our May Festival with their version.
Another tradition to be enjoyed is the poetry book: all the students contribute a poem to this book. When the school was smaller, each student in the school would read their poem at May Festival. Once upon a time, the older students printed the book themselves on a printing press. The poetry book is a tradition that seems so natural when you consider that the school was founded by a poet.
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