Happy May Day!

May 1, 2020

The Westerly Morris Men have been celebrating May Day by dancing at dawn every year since 1975, nearly always at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, USA, more often than not joined by the Mystic Garland women’s Morris team. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we could not all be together in one place this year, therefore, we have settled for dancing together at the same time, in many different places in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Since logistics were no longer a problem, this year we were also joined virtually by the "Not For Joes" border morris team, the Ladies of the Rolling Pin (LORPs), and New Haven Morris & Sword ().

This web page was conceived with the world-wide Morris community in mind, since any available Morris dancer worth their salt will be dancing on May Day, usually at dawn, so that as the sun rises around the world, it is continually being greeted by dancing. Morris dancers believe, or at least have fun pretending to believe, that dancing at dawn on May Day will assure that crops, beast, and man will thrive during the coming year. Basically, it is an ancient English pagan fertility rite. Dancers are not expected to be pagans, although some certainly are. Dancing on May Day is at least as likely to help solve the Covid-19 crisis as some of the advice you can get from one infamous source. And safer than other advice .

In the Virtual May Day celebration below, click the photos for high resolution wider-view original photos or access to videos.
To get back to this page from a photo or video, click the back arrow on your browser or [ALT]+[←] on your keyboard.

May Day is the birthday of our most senior dancer, Everett Munro, therefore it is his favorite gig of the year. So he did not miss it! He was the sole dancer at the traditional dance spots at Connecticut College, dancing a jig to the music of Squire Peter Leibert. Reported Everett: "Light rain. Fortunately, it did not pour. We shared May Wine and I danced Old Mother Oxford at Temple Green and the President's house." Our most dedicated fan, Anne Nalwalk, also did not miss. Thank you to Peter Huoppi of The Day paper for covering the event and shooting a video. Photo of article HERE. First and 4th photos above © The Day.


This being a dispersed event, people met in very small groups in a number of places. At left, you can see Mayada Wadsworth who dances with Mystic Garland and who is a primary musician for both the WMM and Mystic. She played for Tim Groome, who is Squire of the "Not for Joes" and Alex Groome, a dancer with the WMM along with his Dad, Tim. See the video of their wind-whipped May Day performance at Stonington Point in Connecticut.

At right, musician Becky Noreen plays for Katrina Bercaw and Pam Okerblom, all of Mystic Garland, but all of whom occasionally practice or guest perform with the WMM. They spent their May Day dawn in front of the Mystic Aquarium.


Morris teams who the WMM see a bit less often also met in very small groups in a number of places. New Haven reported: "At 5:45 AM we had enough dancers for a side of Gilbertsville plus a musician, Morris music was played, the sun rose, so I believe we officially upheld the New Haven Morris and Sword's unbroken record of celebrating May Day. Hope to see you ALL next year. Dottie - Lisa - Paul – Susan". No action files, but their smiling faces are at left.

At right, you can see that the Ladies of the Rolling Pin went all in on making videos. Karen McGrath sang us a May song in Coventry, RI. The LORPS produced 2 video versions of Shepherd's Hey, one that has everyone dancing together on Zoom and one where Ginny dances with the band, so you can see the dancing and musicians better.
PLEASE NOTE: All LORPs videos are on , so may not be available if you are not also on Facebook.


A number of us did not join small gatherings at all, instead dancing at or near home. Mayada did double duty, dancing at home in Stonington and making her second video of the morning, after playing for the Groomes at dawn. Frederick Rivard (originally from the New Haven team) danced at home at dawn in Lebanon, CT. Fred also posted a great little video later on. Ian Patton danced in Westerly's Wilcox Park near his home in Charlestown, RI, during the much nicer May Day afternoon with his son Michael, accompanied by family.


Furthest north, Dragan Gill danced the Nutting Girl jig at dawn beside the Seekonk River in Providence, RI. Simultaneously and furthest east, WMM Asst. Squire & Web Master Norm Dudziak danced the Ladies Pleasure jig on his back deck in Barrington, RI, under the careful watch of a nesting robin (Turdus migratorius) 8 feet away, with his own special waterfront view.

Rhode Island Angel of Hope & Strength by Shepard Fairey at RIarts.org


Click the photos for higher resolution original photos or access to videos.

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