MONTAGUE — Surely the earth must be waking up by now.
In Montague, bells jingled, clogs clacked against the asphalt and May carols were sung by dozens of colorfully adorned performers and community members participating in the annual May Day celebration.
Participants began at the Montague post office and led a joyful procession to the Town Common, where a maypole was placed. Among those in the procession were dancers and musicians playing violins, horns, woodwinds, drums and an accordion.
The ceremony, which has Celtic, British and European roots, is a sort of earth fertility folk festival that is meant to “wake up” the earth after a long winter to prepare for a successful summer season.
The event has taken place on the first Sunday in May for its entire duration of more than over 30 years.
Rose Sheehan travels from the eastern shores of Massachusetts to attend Montague’s May Day each year.
When she lived in Millers Falls, she was part of the group that formed the May Day celebration in Montague. At that point, Amherst held a similar celebration on the first Saturday of May, “so we chose the first Sunday of May,” she said.
Since the inception of the event in the early ’80s, it has never been completely rained out. There was a bit of mud and drizzle this Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to drive away the crowd.
“There was never a real downpour that chased people away,” Sheehan said. “It’s become a community tradition. People know and they come. There’s a full generation of adults (here) that grew up doing this.”
Now, those who grew up with the May Day tradition bring their own children to the same event.
Perhaps, some of Sunday’s attendees remember the first Montague maypole that cracked and broke.
“But we made it through the celebration,” Sheehan said, adding that a kind Montague resident made a new pole, which has been used to this day.
Sheehan added that the songs sung at the celebration are carols, just like during Christmastime.
“There are such a thing as May carols,” she said.
Carols sung included “Hal and Tow,” “Country Life,” “Bells of Montague,” and “May Song (Hail, Hail, the First of May).” Most attendees knew the words of each carol by heart and sung freely.
“I think a nice thing to point out is, after a number of years, (Montague May Day) no longer had an organizer,” attendee David Kaynor said. “It just sort of happens!”
Once the maypole was placed in the grass, the event truly began as performers and people in the crowd began to dance around it. The pole was painted with blues, greens and yellows and had long pink, yellow, green and purple ribbons streaming off of it. At the very top of the pole sat cheerful sprigs of flowers.
Some dancers had bells tied to their shins so that as they walked or danced, the bells rang throughout the area. Some wore long floral skirts and flower crowns. One person donned an artful rooster costume and another, in a bright green dress, painted her entire body and face an earthy green.
One of the dance groups, Guiding Star Clog Morris, wore clogs with bells attached as group members performed a choreographed dance on the street.
Groups of people grabbed a ribbon and began walking around the pole, chanting various carols accompanied by violin, drum and accordion. Later in the ceremony, Sheehan instructed participants how to “braid” the ribbon around the pole.
“Pink goes under yellow!” she shouted.
Those holding the ribbons were instructed to go above or underneath other ribbons based on the color. Some groups bumped into each other and laughed as they tried to remember the instructions.
“It’s better than Christmas!” exclaimed Nicole Nemec, a Montague resident, about the beloved celebration.
“It’s why we can’t move away from Montague,” said Matthew Duncan, Nemec’s husband.
Nemec said one of the reasons she enjoys the festival so much is that it “somehow manages to be medieval but also authentic.”
Michael Pattavina, a Franklin County resident for 30 years, says he hasn’t missed a May Day since the early 1980s.
“I need to do it,” he said. “It’s important, especially the connection to the community.”
He mentioned that the crowd has slowly grown over the years, but it isn’t a busy tourist attraction, which makes it even better.
“It’s a Franklin County event,” he said.
He motioned at the various dancers moving around the maypole.
“Look how happy they are,” he said. “This is where I get my spiritual nourishment.”
Reach Christie Wisniewski at:
cwisniewski@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 280