It was our May Queen day, today. Yes, I know it's June but May Queen is always in June, don't ask me why.
Every year a young girl is picked to be May Queen and another, a bit younger, is picked to be Rose Queen. They do it at the Village Hall where all the names go into a hat. The girls who hope to be picked have to be at the meeting and have to have lived in Lymm for at least 3 years. Once the queens are picked they have to have 6 attendants each, 4 flower girls, to give the very small ones a chance, and 4 boys to be crown bearers.
Our Laura was picked to be an attendant to the May Queen this year. Two years ago she was a Rose Queen's attendant but last year she was a bridesmaid at a wedding that day so we weren't involved. Anyway, today she and the other maids of honour wore cream bridesmaid dresses from Next and had thin, sparkly blue Alice bands in their hair. I did Laura's just-past-shoulder-length hair with curling tongues and she looked lovely and very sophisticated.
The whole show starts off with a parade which goes round the village twice. I first saw the parade in 1976, our first year here, and there were about 16 floats and 7 bands. Now, despite the rapid expansion of the population, we were down to 5 floats, 2 sets of walkers and 2 bands. One of the floats was Nik's Brownies (she does one every year) and, as the theme was Films, they did High School Musical.
After the parade the whole shebang goes on to the May Queen field, actually owned by the committee. Members of the floats walk round the show ring and a prize is awarded to the best one - it was Lymm Cruising Club this year, they were "Pirates of the Carribean". Then the May and Rose Queens and their retinues walk round the ring to a specially constructed dais where the queens are crowned. There are fair ground rides and other attractions on the field.
Ten years ago I ran a children's art exhibition on the May Queen field. I got entries from each of the 4 primary schools and a nursery/Swizz Link Club, had them judged by a local artist, set them all up on exhibit boards in my marquee (started at 6.30 a.m.) gave every child who entered, about 200 of them, a certificate (printed off my computer and name handwritten by me) and presented the winners and runners-up with rosettes cadged off a friend who used to be a Pony Club judge. It exhausted me.
I was sad to see the procession was so short today, I love the tradition and I don't want to see it die. There's not much left of rural England and things like our May Queen are worth preserving.
Every year a young girl is picked to be May Queen and another, a bit younger, is picked to be Rose Queen. They do it at the Village Hall where all the names go into a hat. The girls who hope to be picked have to be at the meeting and have to have lived in Lymm for at least 3 years. Once the queens are picked they have to have 6 attendants each, 4 flower girls, to give the very small ones a chance, and 4 boys to be crown bearers.
Our Laura was picked to be an attendant to the May Queen this year. Two years ago she was a Rose Queen's attendant but last year she was a bridesmaid at a wedding that day so we weren't involved. Anyway, today she and the other maids of honour wore cream bridesmaid dresses from Next and had thin, sparkly blue Alice bands in their hair. I did Laura's just-past-shoulder-length hair with curling tongues and she looked lovely and very sophisticated.
The whole show starts off with a parade which goes round the village twice. I first saw the parade in 1976, our first year here, and there were about 16 floats and 7 bands. Now, despite the rapid expansion of the population, we were down to 5 floats, 2 sets of walkers and 2 bands. One of the floats was Nik's Brownies (she does one every year) and, as the theme was Films, they did High School Musical.
After the parade the whole shebang goes on to the May Queen field, actually owned by the committee. Members of the floats walk round the show ring and a prize is awarded to the best one - it was Lymm Cruising Club this year, they were "Pirates of the Carribean". Then the May and Rose Queens and their retinues walk round the ring to a specially constructed dais where the queens are crowned. There are fair ground rides and other attractions on the field.
Ten years ago I ran a children's art exhibition on the May Queen field. I got entries from each of the 4 primary schools and a nursery/Swizz Link Club, had them judged by a local artist, set them all up on exhibit boards in my marquee (started at 6.30 a.m.) gave every child who entered, about 200 of them, a certificate (printed off my computer and name handwritten by me) and presented the winners and runners-up with rosettes cadged off a friend who used to be a Pony Club judge. It exhausted me.
I was sad to see the procession was so short today, I love the tradition and I don't want to see it die. There's not much left of rural England and things like our May Queen are worth preserving.
