Queen of the May
Excited anticipation filled The Arena at Grove City College on May 6, but quieted down when the procession began.
The deliberate strains of the brass ensemble made it sound like a wedding. The pretty maids in identical dresses carrying spring bouquets — and the young beauty in an elegant white gown — made it look like a wedding.
But Monica Ammirati, a senior at GCC, was not about to become a bride; she was about to be crowned Queen of the May.
"Now we call it Spring Queen because sometimes we have it in April," said Carol Yeager, who has coordinated the Spring Pageant at GCC for the past 11 years.
Ammirati said she felt a sense of excitement in the Grove City community, but people on the outside didn't seem to know what it means to be spring queen.
"When I told my boyfriend's parents, they thought I said I would be 'spring cleaning,'" she said.
But Ammirati had a lot more fun being spring queen than she would have had spring cleaning.
"It was a fun day and it really is an honor. It's a shame that more schools don't do it," she said.Despite the waning tradition, the practice of electing a May queen has survived at GCC for nearly 100 years. The pomp and circumstance surrounding the coronation is much the same as it was in 1916, when Lulu Caven Heckathorne was crowned the first queen.Four heralds dressed in Elizabethan tunics still process in to the same music used 60 years ago. They lead the procession with long horns followed by the Bearer of the Scepter, Bearer of the Crown, Marshall of the Day, ladies in waiting and young flower girls and pages.As a wind ensemble plays music that would fit a Shakespearean play, Ammirati is crowned. She then crowns the junior queen, waves her scepter in approval and the dancing begins.But the traditional maypole dance has been replaced. The onlookers are transported from Victorian England to modern day America with a dance pageant that includes salsa, Broadway, country and pop music.Coeds pop out in everything from cowboy hats to big green oversized sacks to entertain the royalty.
"We did a number from Cirque de Soliel's 'Varekai,'" said senior Janelle Leone, who participated in the bag dance."We wanted to do something different so that people would notice. We came out in bags made of a green stretchy material and then stripped them off and were in all black."Another change is the addition of a spring king. The election of a king began as a joke, but has resulted in the opportunity to help others, as each candidate is elected based on the amount of donations he collects for his favorite charity.Today the May pageant is just one of a plethora of activities, including several one-act plays and an all-college sing, held in conjunction with the annual Parent's Weekend. About 600 students participate.But the school is unique in that it is one of a mere eight colleges and universities in America that still crowns a May queen.Only 80 American colleges have ever held May pageants, according to author Allison Thompson of Squirrel Hill, who has spent the last five years researching the subject of May pageants for her soon-to-be published book, "Mother, I'm to be Queen of the May, May Day Festivals in America 1830 to 2005."In the romantic early Victorian period in England, there was an uprising of holidays of this nature. In the 1400s, springtime activities including church-sponsored Robin Hood plays and the raising of a maypole were popular, but by the 1800s they died out.
By 1830, sentiment for these types of activities resurged, Thompson said.The ceremony generally had four parts: a procession with costumed parts, crowning of the queen, a variety of dance performances and a play.By the 1900s, Thompson said dance grew in popularity and the physical education departments of many girl's boarding schools and colleges used May Day as an opportunity for the students to explore folk dance.Opposition to the education of women led to traditions like maypole dancing that set women apart."I attended Earlham College in Indiana, and we had an elaborate May Day pageant with five maypoles being danced," said Thompson, whose area of research is folk dance.Brenwar College in Philadelphia and Wilson College in Chambersburg still employ maypole dancing at May pageants, Thompson said.Though Grove City students have not danced around the maypole since the early 1900s, many aspects of the ceremony are still the same, including the election process, said Yeager."I don't think it's changed. Until three years ago we had students write the names of all of the female students on posters and put them up where they could see them. I don't know why we didn't think to make Xerox copies before then," she said.Students then nominate women from the list and have two days to vote for a senior queen and junior queen. Nominees may decline a nomination, but once a nominee accepts she must commit to being present at the ceremony.In fact, that is her sole obligation as May queen.
One year twins were nominated. They were both on the water polo team, which was headed for a championship match in California on spring weekend.One twin decided to accept and she ended up becoming the May queen; the other declined and went to California."The family ended up here," said Yeager.Only one aspect of the election has changed since Alice Ketler, Queen of the May in 1939, was described as "the most beautiful girl at Grove City College," in the college newspaper."At that time it alternated between a 'dorm girl' (out of town student) and a 'town girl,'" said Ketler, who as a town girl was eligible that particular year.Ketler was crowned by the previous year's queen, Betty Prince, wife of Bob Prince, former voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team."She was a good friend and was my bridesmaid," said Ketler, who wore the gown she purchased to wear as May queen for her wedding the following September.It was not unusual since most women married right after college in those days."I gave it to my grandson and they had it made into a christening dress for their daughter," she said.Until 1937, a heavily jeweled crown was rented each year for the queen, but that year Eleanor Ketler, daughter of college president Weir Ketler, was elected May queen, and he purchased the crown that is still used today.Alice Ketler became Eleanor's sister-in-law.Ketler has remained active in the May crowning festivities at Grove City College. In 2000, she hosted the traditional tea that is given every four years for returning queens during Spring Weekend.Her good friend Prince, 89, attended but had a stroke the following Monday and has been confined to a nursing home since.The world changed a lot in the decades after Ketler was crowned May queen.Thompson said the rebellious attitudes of the 1960s led to a decline in any sort of pageant, but somehow GCC's May Day coronation has survived."It's a traditional school and they don't give up things easily that have been the high points," said Ketler.Yeager credits the consistency and perseverance of those who have been in charge before her."Before I took over, there were only two other coordinators," she said."I think the tradition is just fantastic."
