New Westminster’s 152nd May Queen will be crowned at the city’s 153rd May Day festivities.
The New Westminster May Day Community Association selected the positions in this year’s Royal Suite during a recent draw in the rose garden in Queen’s Park. Alessia Preovolos will serve as the city’s 152nd May Queen and Aiden Kim is the Royal Knight Consort.
“This year’s May Day marks the 153rd year of continuous festivities in New Westminster,” said a notice from the association. “The suite is identified, however, as the152nd to acknowledge the fact that during the pandemic the 150th May Queen, Sienna Vahra and her suite and Royal Knights served for two years instead of one.”
Joining Alessia and Aiden in this year’s Royal Suite are: Lilith Miller – First Maid of Honour; Jimin Yun – Second Maid of Honour; Ellie Kang – Register Bearer; Raylynn Morris – Medal Bearer; Elena Akfali – First Flower Girl; Alexa Ramos – Second Flower Girl; Daisy Loi – Third Flower Girl; Sasha Donschenko – Fourth Flower Girl.
“We are thrilled to announce the newly selected 152nd New Westminster May Queen, suite and Royal Knight Consort,” said association president Nikki Binns in a news release. “These are all amazing children, and we look forward to their performance at May Day, in dance, giving speeches, and helping to officiate what will be a thrilling world-record-setting 153rd May Day.”
This year’s May Day will take place on Saturday, May 27 at 3:30 p.m. in Queens Park Stadium.
Last year’s event, the first held in Queen’s Park Stadium since the beginning of the pandemic, included the crowning of the May Queen, speeches by kids in the Royal Suite and local dignitaries, maypole and folk dances performed by local children, entertainment from a variety of dance groups and a land acknowledgment.
While pandemic gathering restrictions prevented the association from hosting a major event in 2020 and 2021, it kept the May Day tradition alive through the crowning of the May Queen at a small ceremony in the Queen’s Park rose garden in 2020 and participation in events such as the Hyack Festival Association’s drive-thru parade in 2021.
“So, although diminished by COVID-19, May Day did in fact continue its unbroken observance,” Binns said. “The diminished activities required significant organization and cost.”
Asked about being a “world-record-setting” event, Binns said no third party has bestowed that record on the city’s May Day celebration but extensive research has shown New Westminster’s May Day to be the longest-running event of its kind in the British Commonwealth, and no one has questioned that claim.
“If the ‘Commonwealth’ claim is true, then it stands to reason that the ‘world record’ is also true, since the May Day manifestation that is practised in New Westminster was largely limited to the Commonwealth,” she explained in an email to the Record. “Other European countries do have their own May Day traditions, but based on our research they have not been continuous.”
When the New Westminster school district stopped overseeing May Day in 2020, the association took over the role of organizing and hosting the event. The random draw for all positions in the May Queen Suite is open to all New Westminster children in grades 5 and 6, and parents and guardians can complete applications on the New Westminster May Day Community Association’s website.
2023 May Queen Suite: From left, Ellie Kang, Alexa Raymos, Aiden Kim (Royal Knight Consort), Alessia Preovolos (May Queen), Jimin Yun, Raylynn Morris, Elena Akfali. Missing: Daisy Loi, Sasha Donschenko and Lilith Miller.
