Pictured, top left: Kat and Nate Whitten ’16 on May Day; below: Nate with his grandmother, Kay.
A letter from Kat Whitten P’14 ’16, Director of Community Engagement
A month from now, we’ll be celebrating May Day at CRS. This is one of my favorite days of the year, and while I communicate often with families about the when, where, and what about this longstanding tradition, today I want to focus on the why. Why is May Day special?
To begin with, it hits at the perfect time of year. It’s spring, and trees and flowers will be blooming, the sun will be shining (if I say it enough, it will be true!), and we can pat ourselves on the back for making it through one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. The tradition of May Day is centuries old and rooted in European agrarian societies. Celebrated at the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, May Day is meant to welcome spring and to signify gratitude for Mother Nature. It’s hard to imagine a more apt place to truly appreciate the beauty of spring in New England than our campus.
May Day comes at the perfect time in the school calendar, too. We still have more than a month of school left, so we can celebrate all that students have achieved without feeling pangs of melancholy that the year has ended. Heading into the home stretch, students carry themselves with a comfort and confidence they might not have felt in the fall. This is always in evidence as they welcome guests to campus on May Day.
More specifically, the May Day assembly is one of the best examples we have of connecting joy with academic excellence. This will be my nineteenth May Day and I still marvel at the fact that every student – every last one – will perform.
Over the next month, classrooms across campus will be filled with students who are using their creativity to craft original songs and skits to share with visitors. They will demonstrate determination and dedication as they rehearse, they’ll collaborate with their classmates, and then on May 1, they’ll get to feel the pride in performing in front of an audience far bigger than most four to fourteen-year-olds ever experience. It can be easy to take for granted how talented and courageous CRS students are; May Day is a great time to pause and reflect on just how impressive this is.
The day also features classroom visits, where our Otters get to shine in a different way. Whether it’s introducing a special guest to a beloved teacher, confidently showing off their favorite reading nook in the library or a piece of artwork on display in the hallways, or explaining the rules of wall ball, our students are communicating what is theirs. “This is my place,” they are saying. “These are my people. This is where I am known.”
I can say all of this with confidence, a full month before the event, because May Day is one of CRS’s most enduring traditions. This is probably where I need to admit (in case it’s not already evident) that I am a sucker for traditions, especially in school communities. This is surely rooted in my own childhood. My family moved around a lot and by the time I started seventh grade, we were living in my seventh home and I was entering my seventh new school. Traditions provided a shortcut for me as a perpetual “new kid” to feel included through a shared experience with my classmates. Whether it was competing in field days or learning a school song (I can sing a surprising number of alma maters) or prepping for a seminal event, I always felt more like an insider once I’d participated in a ritual that was important at my new school.
This is one of the reasons why schools like CRS have so many traditions. Traditions welcome new students and families into the fold and bind us together as a community. They help build a positive school culture and signal what we value. And in a school that was founded 115 years ago, traditions create a bridge between the past, present, and future. The CRS archives are filled with photos of the Fair, Winter Festival, Sports Day, and class plays. Squint so you aren’t focused on what people are wearing, and you would be hard-pressed to distinguish between a May Day 50 years ago and the event we will enjoy in a few weeks. The continuity is remarkable and helps alumni, their parents and caregivers, and former faculty all feel connected to the CRS of 2026.
Here’s where I need to say it: if you haven’t already, clear your calendar for Friday, May 1. Join us on campus to experience the joy and excellence and sense of belonging and history. As much as I want to will it into being, I can’t actually promise warm weather and sunshine. But I do promise that you and about 500 other people who care deeply about CRS and our students will be here. Prepare to be blown away by what makes May Day special.