It’s been a long winter. As if the post-election pall weren’t bad enough, we’ve broken the 122-year-old record for wettest winter, and another record for the sheer number of wet days between October and April.
How do you cope with such dismal weather? Take excessive doses of Vitamin D? Book a trip someplace sunny? Complain while binge-watching Netflix?
How about getting up before dawn on May 1st to bring in the summer!
It may sound crazy, but rising before dawn on May Day has a long and venerable tradition in olde England, a place with a climate familiarly moist and gray. Each year on May Day, the village Morris dancers task themselves with greeting the sunrise with song and dance to ensure a warm summer and fertility for the crops.
Luckily for Seattle, we have several Morris dancing troupes who participate in this ritual each year right here at Gasworks Park. If you arrive at Gasworks around 5:30 a.m., you can follow these beribboned and bell-laden dancers to the southern point of the park, where they will dance the sun up in a joyous celebration to the end of winter. The festivities will end around 7 a.m.
The celebration is free and family-friendly. You are advised to dress in layers, to bring blankets, thermoses and snacks, and to festoon yourself with ribbons and flowers if you are so inclined.
More information on our Facebook event page, or by emailing [email protected]
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Thank you Kimberly for the heads up on this group. I never knew of them before and I’ve lived over 40 years a mile from Gas Works park. Do you know anything about their history?
Actually, this is perhaps irrelevant to your question, but a very obscure historical point I just stumbled across – there was a “Gasworks Morris” team in 1979 and 1980. Some of whose members then formed the Mossyback Morris Men, who are still around and can be expected to appear Monday not acting their age as usual. That’s probably about the time frame when the May Day thing started at Gasworks.
Hi Berta,
There will be several sides of Morris dancers performing. Sound and Fury Morris (to which I belong) has been in existence since 1999 and we are the “newcomers” to the Seattle Morris dancing community (at least as far as adult sides go – we’ve got a small children’s side in existence who will be there Monday as well). The Mossyback Morris Men, North by Northwest Morris and Misty City Morris have all been around longer than that.
Sound and Fury tries to dance out as much as possible – often dancing at Gasworks as part of our rehearsals on Monday evenings in the summer, at the NW Folklife Festival, and at the Wassail in Meridian Park each January. You can find more info at http://www.soundandfurymorris.com
Thanks for your interest!
Thanks for the info, Kimberly. I had never even heard of Morris dancers and at first thought of our local celebrity, Mark Morris. But not the same I guess.
Very fun.
For those who may not get up so early there is also a May Day celebration sponsored by Fremont Arts at Woodland Park in evening.
Here’s Morris dancing…