Union School Celebrates May Day

Union School students, staff and families celebrated a traditional May Day Wednesday, albeit a day late due to weather, with singing, orchestral music and dancing.

The annual tradition has been evolving over the years and by showcasing music of different cultures, helping students to develop an appreciation of diversity, Principal Lynn Katz said, addressing the crowd of parents who had gathered. The students involved showed determination and team work, she said, in persevering to learn the day's dances.

The dances were complex, Katz said. Children locked hands to form a circle as each child took a turn weaving and ducking under their arms. Some wore jackets on one of the cooler May Day celebrations while others shivered in spring dresses and t-shirts.

A crowd of parents lined the blacktop to wave and smile at the young performers and record the celebration on camera.

While each grade had a turn to dance, fourth-graders had the special honor of performing a north skeleton sword dance, tapping long sticks together, twisting them around in a circle, eventually forming a star and lifting it above their heads.

The fourth-graders also performed the traditional maypole dance, weaving and unweaving long ribbons around the pole. Music teacher Miss Kate Smallidge reminded the children which colors went which way and the performance came off flawlessly.

In closing the celebration, Katz thanked the teachers who had worked to prepare the event - retired music teacher Mattie Banzhalf, strings teacher Janet Fantozzi and Smallidge - sending students with baskets of flowers to them.

"Thank you so much for teaching our children and being so patient," she said.