Tuesday afternoon my supervisor, Meg, told me that she'd be in earlier than usual on Thursday because it was May Day, and there was going to be morris dancing at dawn at Gas Works Park. I was interested in going and mentioned it to Jeff yesterday. He didn't know what morris dancing was, and I didn't either really, so I googled and read him a little about how the purposes of the morris had something to do with fertility and the rites of agrarian society.
Jeff said Oh yeah, it's Beltane,
which I hadn't realized. So I got up before dawn this morning and called Jeff, and at dawn we were at Gas Works Park.
The dancing was really neat. I don't know the names of the groups that were performing, but they did some really neat dances, especially one with flexible metal swords
with which they formed cool patterns and miraculously avoided tying themselves in knots. At the very end the audience got to do a sort of English country dance, which was very confusing with so many people, but it was fun anyway. It was a great way to start off the day as well as the summer.
And in the end, Meg slept in and didn't go after all, so I got to tease her all day about sleeping in. For example, Some people had breakfast at 5:10...
It was much fun.
lori says:
Oh wow, Morris Dancing! That must have been fun to watch.
I used to teach English Country Dances (and other stuff) for the Pittsburgh SCA. I hope you get to learn more of it -- the dances are very pretty. And hey, I met your brother that way ;-)
Happy May Day (a bit late), and glad the new job is working out!