When the parade begins, there is music all the way through.
Showing posts with label MayDay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MayDay. Show all posts
Friday, May 06, 2011
May Day 2011 videos
I love the the parade to Powderhorn park. A band warmed up the crowd before the parade started. Kids drew on the street with chalk; bikers rolled up and down the street; folks staked out their spots with blankets.
Monday, May 03, 2010
May Day 2010 part 4
At the end of the parade, the puppets and floats are parked on the grass by the lake in Powderhorn park.
If you can get space, you can watch the ceremony at the other end of the lake. It's always the same theme: the creatures of the earth and the may tree are driven underground or imprisoned by the anti-natural forces of greed or injustice. The the four elements--the giant puppets--emerge and call for the sun to return. The sun travels across the lake, pulled by canoes with conch shells and drums sounding.
We wait, we wait, and every year, the sun returns.
The giant tree of life is resurrected, and we sing. This year, I was close enough to catch glimpses, but too short (as always) to see everything. That's OK, because I've seen it so many times now.
I have some fun video clips but I need to upload them to YouTube.
If you can get space, you can watch the ceremony at the other end of the lake. It's always the same theme: the creatures of the earth and the may tree are driven underground or imprisoned by the anti-natural forces of greed or injustice. The the four elements--the giant puppets--emerge and call for the sun to return. The sun travels across the lake, pulled by canoes with conch shells and drums sounding.
We wait, we wait, and every year, the sun returns.
The giant tree of life is resurrected, and we sing. This year, I was close enough to catch glimpses, but too short (as always) to see everything. That's OK, because I've seen it so many times now.
I have some fun video clips but I need to upload them to YouTube.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
May Day 2010 part 2
The creativity is wonderful. Every year people make puppets, costumes, creatures. This year there was an elephant section, and this yellow elephant had feet that were moved by being hooked to a bike's wheels.
The children who ride in the wagons grow up to be stilt-walkers.
Owls accompanied the section where dark creatures marched, and this one was one a long pole.
The themes of life and death sometimes are merged in one figure, as in this butterfly skeleton.
The children who ride in the wagons grow up to be stilt-walkers.
Owls accompanied the section where dark creatures marched, and this one was one a long pole.
The themes of life and death sometimes are merged in one figure, as in this butterfly skeleton.
May Day 2010 part 1
I don't remember what year I attended my first May Day festival in Minneapolis, but I have tried to go every year I've lived here when I am in town. My daughter attended her first one before she could walk. Now, she and her friends wanted to go off on their own! I dropped them off at the park, and had a great time exploring on my own, without the need to keep track of a kid in the crowd. Cell phones make it easy to meet up again later.
Before they (politely) ditched me.
Every year, there are workshops for neighbors to creat the theme, costumes, and floats for the parade, around the central idea of the return of spring. This year's theme was Uproar! for the year of the tiger, and for need to keep vigilant.
Every one can be a part of the parade, and I love when people decorate their babies.
Before they (politely) ditched me.
Every year, there are workshops for neighbors to creat the theme, costumes, and floats for the parade, around the central idea of the return of spring. This year's theme was Uproar! for the year of the tiger, and for need to keep vigilant.
Every one can be a part of the parade, and I love when people decorate their babies.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Once again May Day
The weather today is absolutely ideal for the 35th May Day Festival! 
I have tried to go every year since I moved to the Twin Cities 20 years ago, only missing it when I was out of town. Every Year there is a theme, and this year's is Our Common Treasure: Dig It.
Each year's theme is chosen as the artists of The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater meet with neighbors and members of the community to talk, brainstorm, make art. Then, once the theme is chosen, they all go to work to make the story that is each year the same and each year different. Here's how they explain it:
The first May Day I attended with my daughter was when she was seven months old. This year she is 14, and we'll both bring our cameras! I'm not a great photographer, but I have great memories of each year's festival: of the kids and families, the costumes, the music, the joyous energy, the birds and flowers and water and sun of Powderhorn Park, the affirmation of life and the renewal of commitment to solidarity, change, and beauty. We will watch the giant puppets, the musicians and dancers, and then the performance of the festival story: the May tree and the Sun are reunited. The Morris dancers and pagans will be there, the lefties and hippies and artists will be there, the anarchist kids on bikes will be there, and we will be there.
We will sing "Down By the Riverside" and "You Are My Sunshine" and I will probably cry.
I have tried to go every year since I moved to the Twin Cities 20 years ago, only missing it when I was out of town. Every Year there is a theme, and this year's is Our Common Treasure: Dig It.Each year's theme is chosen as the artists of The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater meet with neighbors and members of the community to talk, brainstorm, make art. Then, once the theme is chosen, they all go to work to make the story that is each year the same and each year different. Here's how they explain it:
Our Common Treasury— Dig It
HOBT’s MayDay Parade, Ceremony, and Festival has always been rooted in two important traditional celebrations—the celebration of the Green Root of Earth’s green energy rising in Spring, and the Red Root of human work energy rising from mind, heart and hand.
Our theme this year celebrates the merging of the red and green energies of the world.
We cheer on the great merging of the human social justice movements with the environmental movements to remember humans as responsible relatives of the earth.
As we experience the failure of our economic systems built on debt, consumer waste, the theft and sickening of earth resources, we gather to rebuild an economic system that protects and sustains our Earth as a “Common Treasury for All.”
The first May Day I attended with my daughter was when she was seven months old. This year she is 14, and we'll both bring our cameras! I'm not a great photographer, but I have great memories of each year's festival: of the kids and families, the costumes, the music, the joyous energy, the birds and flowers and water and sun of Powderhorn Park, the affirmation of life and the renewal of commitment to solidarity, change, and beauty. We will watch the giant puppets, the musicians and dancers, and then the performance of the festival story: the May tree and the Sun are reunited. The Morris dancers and pagans will be there, the lefties and hippies and artists will be there, the anarchist kids on bikes will be there, and we will be there.We will sing "Down By the Riverside" and "You Are My Sunshine" and I will probably cry.
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