DAVIS LEIGH DUO at RIVERBANK CAFE

It's a special day this Friday....

May 1 is a cross-quarter day, meaning that it falls approximately halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. For NKU students, thankfully, it's end-semester day...

May 1 is International Workers' Day! A strike called on this day in Chicago led to the 1866 Haymarket Riot (the drummer for TOAST!, Tom Vogel, was there and remembers it...)

May 1 is celebrated as a religious holiday by many modern pagans.

On May 1 (or the nearest Sunday...), the "In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre" sponsors a fantastic parade in Minneapolis, an event that has happened every year since 1975 and now attracts some 35,000 people.

In England, traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving dancing around a Maypole. (A Maypole is a person of Polish descent born on May 1...)

On May 1, it is traditional for revellers to gather below the Magdalen College tower in Oxford, England to listen to the college's choir for what is called May Morning. It is then thought to be traditional for some students to jump off Magdalen Bridge into the River Cherwell. In recent years the bridge has been closed on 1 May to prevent people from jumping, as the water under the bridge is only 2 feet deep and jumping from the bridge has resulted in serious injury, yet there are still students who insist on climbing the barriers and leaping into the water. Steve, being a college instructor, is not surprised by this student behavior....

On May 1 in St Andrews, Scotland, some of the students gather on the beach late on April 30 and run naked into the North Sea at sunrise on May Day. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration, and afterward, by much ale and Scotch whisky -- both of which, we'll note, are available at the Riverbank.

AND ---

On this May 1, the Davis Leigh Duo is playing at the Riverbank Cafe, 102 Main Street in beautiful downtown Hamilton. You really should come. You can reenact the Haymarket Riot, or dance around the maypole on stage, or jump off the stage into a pitcher of water representing the River Cherwell or the North Sea. You can even do it naked, if you like. It should be fun!

See you Friday, we hope!

From: [identity profile] lsanderson.livejournal.com

Uhm...


Heart o' the Beast parade is on a Sunday kinda close to May 1st or on May 1st if May 1st falls on a Sunday.

From: [identity profile] minnehaha.livejournal.com

Re: Uhm...


First Sunday in May. And close enough for rock and roll.

K.

From: [identity profile] the-corbie.livejournal.com


On May 1 in St Andrews, Scotland, some of the students gather on the beach late on April 30 and run naked into the North Sea at sunrise on May Day. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration, and afterward, by much ale and Scotch whisky.

Haha, yes they do. This is an unlikely place to run across a reference to the May Dip. And it's fully as cold as you might think. :)

From: [identity profile] braider.livejournal.com


*grin* Might you be up to shepherding a tourist to the May Dip some year? It sounds...delightfully insane, and probably not much colder than the rain at the Edinburgh May Day bonfire last year.

From: [identity profile] the-corbie.livejournal.com


I'm always happy to shepherd tourists. I like showing off the town.

From: [identity profile] kerinda.livejournal.com


Haha on the Maypole. :D

Hamilton is awfully close to me. Maybe I can convince someone to come along.

From: [identity profile] desperance.livejournal.com


I have observed May Morning in Oxford (tho' not, indeed, with the jumping; we punted decorously after, and had breakfast on the water) and the May Dip in St Andrews. Score two.

From: [identity profile] braider.livejournal.com


Dunno. Somehow, the cafe just lacks the mystique of St. Andrews....

Have a great show!

From: [identity profile] braider.livejournal.com


I asked my boss for vacation time so that I could leave tomorrow for Scotland to attend the May Dip in St. Andrews. She laughed. Totally unreasonable! Stifling my ability to attend an event with such high cultural significance, I mean, really....
.