The Royal City's smallest school has the privilege of providing the May Queen for the second year in a row.
Leah Binns, a student at Hume Park Elementary School, has been named New Westminster's 142nd May Queen and Thai Tran is the school's royal knight. May Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, May 23 at Queen's Park.
"I feel excited. It's the second year in a row," Leah said about Hume Park Elementary's reign as May Queen. "I have been there my whole life - I love the school so much because it is small."
A random draw was held in city council chambers Monday night to select the 2012 May Queen Suite.
In addition to the May Queen, the suite consists of: first maid of honour Isidora Cvjetan and royal knight Kinsale Philip (Richard McBride); second maid of honour Alexandra Mercier and royal knight Myles Farina (F.W. Howay); medal bearer Simrat Singh and royal knight Kyle Kirmaci (Queensborough Middle School); register bearer Emily Osowski and royal knight Jeffery Li (John Robson); first flower girl Taylor Spong and royal knight Xavier Cornelius (Lord Kelvin); second flower girl Zijia Wang and royal knight Christopher Brown (Connaught Heights); third flower girl Emma Hughes and royal knight Jackson Foster (Lord Tweedsmuir); and fourth flower girl Erica Malcom and royal knight Aidan Taylor (Herbert Spencer).
The 142-year-old tradition got underway in 1870 when Nellie McColl was crowned New Westminster's first May Queen.
Lindsay DeLair, who MCed the 2012 May Queen draw in council chambers Monday night, said in the early years of the celebration, the fire chief would go to the father of the girl chosen as May Queen and seek the father's permission for his daughter to serve as May Queen.
That system for selecting the May Queen was "not without its criticisms," she noted, and in 1904 a new system was implemented for selecting the May Queen. A group of people were chosen to select the queen, and for "diplomatic and other reasons" their identities were kept a secret.
In 1907, students were asked to nominate 12-and 13-year-old girls for May Queen.
Three girls were selected and students would then vote for the May Queen, and the May Queen would then select her two maids of honour.
In recent times, students at each of the city's elementary schools have voted for a Grade 5 girl and boy to serve as their May Queen representative and royal knight. All of the schools' names are placed in small vials in a hat and randomly drawn to determine their positions in the May Queen Suite.
In bygone eras, boys served as an honour guard. In more recent times, a boy from each school has been selected as a royal knight to represent his school at May Day and other functions.
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