May Queen Cassidy Tecklenborg enjoyed sharing a longstanding Royal City tradition with her grandfather at this year’s May Day banquet.
The banquet, held on the evening of the May Day festivities in Queen’s Park, includes four square dances done by girls in the May Queen suite and the Royal Lancers. The Royal Lancers’ tradition of dancing at the May Day banquet dates back more than 100 years.
While the chair of the Royal Lancers normally dances with the May Queen, David MacGrotty asked lancer Bud Sage if he’d like to dance with his granddaughter at the banquet. Sage is a longtime member of the Royal Lancers, a group of men who dance with the May Queen suite.
“To me it’s exceptionally special. That happens so rarely,” MacGrotty said. “It’s about dealing with situations that come up and doing it in an honourable way. To me it’s a fabulous thing. We honour the family, we honour the May Queen.”
The fate of the Royal Lancers’ role at the May Day banquet was uncertain, after city council approved a recommendation by Coun. Chuck Puchmayr to enter into discussions about modernizing the Royal Lancers' dance at the annual dinner. Changes introduced at this year’s May Day banquet included eliminating the waltz between the lancers and the girls in the May Queen suite, and having the Royal Knights march in and march out with the girls, rather than the Royal Lancers.
According to MacGrotty, the Royal Lancers, and coordinators of the Royal Knights and the May Queen suite were pleased to introduce the changes to the city.
“We met and talked about it and brought the march-in with the Royal Knights to the city as a change,” he said. “We actually said the waltz wasn’t necessary, from our point of view.”
Historically, the four square dances between the Royal Lancers and girls in the May Queen suite is the aspect that has a long tradition, MacGrotty said.
Puchmayr was also pleased with the changes incorporated into this year’s May Day banquet.
“The waltz was eliminated. I think the waltz was what was probably the most controversial of those dances,” he said. “I actually had a couple of lancers come up and thank me.”
Puchmayr is particularly pleased that the Royal Knights had more of a role in this year’s event, as they marched the girls in the May Queen suite into the banquet and sat with girls in the May Queen suite and city officials.
“I think the young people are more comfortable interacting with each other,” Puchmayr said. “Before it was the boys at a table together, and the May Queen suite would be sitting with the lancers. I thought this was a really good way of doing it.”
In past years, the Royal Knights sat on the floor while the girls danced with the Royal Lancers, but this year they were on stage during the four square dances and they held signs supporting their respective schools.
While New Westminster has crowned a May Queen for the past 144 years, boys were only introduced as Royal Knights in the 1990s.
“They were sort of relegated to being at the May Day draw and having a fairly insignificant role at the event,” Puchmayr said. “The idea of modernizing was to make it more child centric and bringing the boys more into a role with that event.”
MacGrotty, a member of the May Day committee for about 20 years, said the 144-year-old tradition has always been about the children for the Royal Lancers.
“It’s an incredible tradition. I don’t ever want to lose it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t tweak things here and there,” Puchmayr said. “I think making it child centric is the way to go.”
