May Day celebration used to be big deal in the Valley

Photo: Greater Vernon Museum and Archives

Vernon May Day Queens Marion Baverstock, Marjean Clarke, and Irene Klausman arriving at Polson Park, accompanied by a Boy Scout escort, in 1937.

Over the years, the returning abundance of this time of year has provoked celebrations around the world, including here in Vernon.

Springtime celebrations likely originated from the Floralia, an ancient Roman religious festival that celebrated Flora, the goddess of flowers.

More recent ancestors to the modern May Day celebration include the Germanic “Saint Walpurgis Night” and the Gaelic “Beltane,” medieval festivals that were — and in some regions, continue to be — observed on May 1.

The most well-known modern May Day traditions, both in Europe and North America, include dancing around a maypole and crowning a Queen of May. While the occasion continues to be celebrated around the world, the tradition has faded in popularity in North America — and Vernon — since the mid 20th century.

The first May Day celebration was hosted in Vernon on May 1, 1921. George Minty carried May Queen Helen Cochrane through Vernon’s streets on his open landau coach — more commonly known as the Minty Coach — and large crowds gathered in Polson Park to watch the Maypole dance. 

The May Day celebration over the years usually included a parade down 30th Avenue that saw cars and floats decorated with Union Jacks and flowers.

The transportation of the royalty was always reserved for the Minty Coach, and usually preceded by a guard of Boy Scouts. As for the May Day royalty, the Queen’s entourage seemed to grow over the years. Some years saw multiple Queens crowned, while others saw the queen joined by an entourage of maids of honour and young attendants — pages and flower girls under the age of 10.

Vernon’s neighbouring communities of Oyama, Lumby and Coldstream had their own May Day celebrations, but they all seemed to fade out of popularity in the 1950s, around the same time another festival with parades, pageantry, and princesses emerged on the scene — the Vernon Winter Carnival.