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May Day 2016

April 22, 2016

As finals week approaches and Bryn Mawr students bear down on exams and papers, the College’s traditional May Day celebration urges emergence from the library stacks and the lifting of noses from grindstones with a day-long moratorium on academic activity.

For several years, Bryn Mawr’s May Day celebration has been held on the Sunday following the last day of classes. This year, the date falls on May 1.

The celebration begins at 5:45 a.m., when sophomores awaken seniors with flower baskets and song. A mix of old and new traditions, the day includes a hoop race that predicts who will be the first to earn her doctorate. In addition to the traditional maypole event, students in the mid-1980s added a distinctly feminist May Hole Dance, celebrating the liberation of women from patriarchy through the symbolic releasing of thousands of flower petals into the air. The day-long re-enactment of the Elizabethan rite of spring ends with the screening of The Philadelphia Story, starring Bryn Mawr’s most famous graduate, Katharine Hepburn ’28. The next morning, final exams begin.

Many of the day’s events, including Maypole dancing, hoop race, concerts, plays, and colorful Renaissance pageantry, are free and open to the public.

Click here to see the complete schedule for the day.