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LETTERS: May Day is a proud tradition

I am currently living in Asia, but spent the first 24 years of my life as a proud resident of New Westminster and return there regularly to visit my parents.
May Day
A tradition in transition: New Westminster is home to the longest running May Day celebrations in the Commonwealth. Council has cut the Royal Lancers' dances from the May Day banquet to make the event more "child focused" but supporters aren't giving up on the century old tradition without a fight.

I am currently living in Asia, but spent the first 24 years of my life as a proud resident of New Westminster and return there regularly to visit my parents. Over the past few weeks, social media has been inundated with concern over the future of May Day celebrations.  

To get right to the point, I believe that having the event take place at Queen's Park does a much better job of celebrating the history and the City of New Westminster. It is an opportunity for all the children of New Westminster to really see that they are part of a community, as they all come together to celebrate.

I am a teacher, and I firmly believe that if May Day was left to individual schools to celebrate we would quickly see the tradition deteriorate as other priorities would take its place. Also, my guess is that most of the teachers in New West are not from there, so they may not see the significance in May Day that long-time residents do. Making this a mandatory event in which all the school children of the city come together will ensure the history of New Westminster is not forgotten.

I participated in May Day celebrations throughout my years of public school in New West. I remember it being very, very exciting to earn the honour of performing before such a massive audience in both grades 3 and 4. I was not the kind of person who would have ever been May Queen, but I got to shine as a member of the team of male and female dancers. If an outside entity took responsibility for May Day celebrations, I am convinced that there are very few children who would end up participating as families would say they are too busy to support their children and those who would simply not see the importance of exposing their children to the opportunity. And in this day and age of technology, I'm sure a lot of children would opt to go home and play on their iPad before heading to a rehearsal to dance around the maypole. Now, please tell me what the best choice would be for children - gluing themselves to a screen or experiencing the beauty and mental stimulation of music, physical activity, collaboration, team-type spirit, camaraderie and self-pride in their accomplishment when they get out on that field and perform for an audience of their peers and other community members?

I work at an international school in the Philippines and have travelled to almost every country in Southeast Asia. Here, every Asian culture has such incredible national pride, which is highly visible through dance, costumes, food and other cultural traditions that they actively celebrate and cherish. Canada is such a young country that is lacking in such traditions. Taking May Day away from New Westminster would deteriorate the city/province that much more in this respect. And as for the question on the Google survey regarding the clothing that the May Queen suite wears, I can guarantee that you don't see Japanese and Korean girls trading in their kimono or hanbok for jeans and a T-shirt, or anything else for that matter. It is a visible representation of their heritage that they wear with pride.

As for the inclusiveness of the event, the decision was made several years ago to include boys in the May Queen suite. This was definitely a step in the right direction. Voting for a representative is a part of life and, although there is the possibility that it ends up being more of a popularity contest, I also believe that a lot can be done to change that as long as the expectations for those running for the title are made clear and, possibly, revised.

Finally, I understand that teaching time is taken up by this event, however, it should be made a formal part of the curriculum. Teaching the dance as part of the music and P.E. curriculum is an absolutely natural fit. The value of rehearsing something like this to a performance level is so valuable. How do professional athletes and actors achieve their status? The ethic that it induces will be carried across all disciplines, not only in school but in their life as adults out in the real world.

B.C. has recently made a change in their K-12 curriculum to make the learning more authentic and meaningful for students. May Day absolutely provides a valid, authentic purpose for learning. Furthermore, the history of May Day should also be acknowledged and studied more in-depth in the schools. This could be done through the study of traditions, with May Day being one of many possible examples. Children could be reaching out to the community to interview people about the history of the city. It certainly does not have to be an add-on, but rather a focal point of student learning.

In this day and age of modernization, it would be a real crime to steal away or diminish the value of May Day in New Westminster. I hope the powers that be will listen to the voices that have the courage to speak up, as they represent a huge population who don't have the guts or the time to put pen to paper and share their view.

Kris Hamaguchi (née Gillis) is a former New Westminster resident.