Students were shocked recently when Director of Parent and Alumni Programs Suzanne Abrams announced a change in the typical May Day costume selection procedure.
May Day is an age-old MFS tradition, begun over a hundred years ago. Every four years, MFS students, alumni, and faculty gather on the fields to celebrate spring while maintaining a Renaissance Fair-like spirit of song and dance, community, and elaborate costumes.
But in Meeting for Business this January, Abrams presented Upper Schoolers with a new opportunity — to choose their own costumes for May Day 2018.
“Historically,” she said, “each grade was given a theme. So, freshmen might have been water/pirates/mermaids, and sophomores could’ve been Shakespeare, and seniors might’ve been royalty. It was assigned to them, and this was what you were going to dress as.”
This year, however, class “officers [will] reach out to their class and come up with [theme] suggestions, then narrow it down to two … then present the two to [Dean of Students Mike] Brunswick. Then, he, along with our staff, will look at the two and just pick one.”
According to Abrams, first choice themes will only be shut down if they are deemed inappropriate or are a duplicate of another theme.
As for why this new freedom is being offered, Abrams told WordsWorth, “We wanted to get students more engaged in May Day and … enthusiastic about what they’re dressing like. … We’ve noticed that you [all] do such a great job with Spirit Week and … you’re very creative and the costuming is great. So, we wanted to give the students an opportunity to come up with their own themes for May Day that fit into the genre of May Day and that are appropriate, but that you feel connected to.”
Following this news, students had mixed reactions.
Some, like Junior Maddie Mininno, were thrilled about the change: “I think the new idea for May Day is really cool, because … [students] will have more fun with it if they get to dress up like something that they get to pick.”
On the other hand, the new opportunity can be taken as unnecessary or as something that tarnishes the traditional aspects of May Day. Junior Sonia Patel told WordsWorth, “I’m not really satisfied with it because I think it takes away from part of the tradition. For the past 100 years or more, people have been dressing up as the same thing as a grade. I understand that they want to include the opinions of high schoolers, but I really don’t think allowing people to choose their own costume is the way to do it. I think since it’s such a traditional day, it should be kept the way it is.”
Junior Katie Paw, in fact, posited that upper schoolers won’t take May Day costuming as seriously now, and believes that some may take their theme into provocative territory as a result.
According to Junior Class Secretary Andrew Rowan, some problems may arise within each grade due to this system as well: “As a class officer who has to deal with … taking everyone’s [ideas] and sorting them back out – during Spirit Week, the process never works because there are too many ideas, and when people don’t have any good ideas and they see the list that they have to vote on, they just get disheartened because they’re like, ‘These are really bad ideas.’ When there’s a final decision, because one has to be made, people are just disinterested because they think it’s a bad idea, but we have to go with it anyway.”
After conducting the costume selection process, Sophomore Class Vice President Shelby Deibler said, “The May Day process was pretty simple with a poll. The only challenging thing was coming up with ideas from the grade because [the officers] felt like there wasn’t much information shared with the entire Upper School; it was primarily just with officers.” Deibler echoed Junior Katie Paw’s claim that students may attempt to don provocative costumes, confirming that students alluded to this during discussions about costumes throughout the Sophomore class.
Abrams said that administration is simply “going to hope that it all goes smoothly” with the selection process and wearing costumes during the celebration, and reminded the Upper School during Meeting for Business that “if [they’re] not interested in wearing a costume at all, that’s ok; [they] can just go down to costuming and get a sash. We’re asking everyone to at least wear some type of sash if they don’t want to go with the theme that’s been assigned to their grade.” She additionally stated that May Day costumes must reside within the guidelines of the MFS dress code.
Abrams says she “hope[s] that [students will] be very enthusiastic about it, and that they’ll be excited about May Day as much as they have been in the past, if not more so, since they have the opportunity to direct what they’re wearing”.
Ultimately, the ruling on whether this May Day innovation is a flop or a victory remains to be heard – MFS will have to wait until the celebration on May 4th for the verdict. In the meantime, Upper School grades should get to work on making their costumes the best they can be.
