Welcome to the merry month of May, where May Day celebrations were once a well-attended event in the North Okanagan.
The picture with this story, courtesy of the Museum and Archives of Vernon, shows children dancing around a Maypole in Coldstream in 1950.
According to the museum, the first May Day celebration was hosted in Vernon May 1, 1921. A man named George Minty carried Helen Cochrane, May Queen, through the streets of Vernon on his open four-wheel coach – the Minty Coach as it came to be known – and huge crowds gathered at Polson Park to watch the Maypole Dance.
The Minty Coach was reserved for transporting May Queen royalty, and was usually preceded by a guard of Boy Scouts. As for the royalty, there were times when multiple queens were crowned, while in other years the queen was joined by an entourage of maids of honour, and pages and flower girls under the age of 10.
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.
Vernon’s neighbouring communities of Oyama, Lumby, and Coldstream had their own May Day celebrations, but according to the museum, they all seemed to fade out of popularity in the 1950s.
Except in Lavington.
Lavington May Day reached 71 years in 2019, with the then-annual event being one of the few May Day celebrations remaining in Western Canada.
The festival moved two years prior to Lavington Elementary School after being held at the community park for decades.
The 71st May Day Festival was unique in that was held indoors at the school for the first time since 1994 because of rain.
COVID cancelled the May Day Festival in 2020, and it has not been revived.
