University Libraries
Mary’s Month of May: Yearbooks Provide Glimpse of Past Traditions
By Amanda Norris
For centuries, Catholics worldwide have devoted the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrating with prayers, services and special events including May Day and the traditional May Crowning — the placing of a crown of flowers on the head of a statue of the Blessed Virgin.
May’s Marian celebrations have had particular significance at the University of Dayton, a Marianist institution. University yearbooks from the 1940s and ’50s provide a window onto the community’s more extravagant celebrations: In those years, the University elected a May Queen to be front and center with her attendants in the community prayers to Mary for peace, guidance and intercession.
On May Day, after a Mass in the Immaculate Conception Chapel, the congregation would assemble for a procession to the Immaculate Conception statue on the west lawn of St. Mary’s Hall. The May Queen, “garbed in an immaculate white gown,” and her attendants placed flowers at the base of the statue, then knelt and offered prayers while the priest blessed the crowd and led them in devotions to the mother of Christ.
— Amanda Norris is a graduate student in public history at Wright State University.
Sources
- “Catholic Activity: May Day.” CatholicCulture.org. 2018. 25 Apr 2018. https://www.catholicculture. org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=498.
- Daytonian. Dayton, Ohio: University of Dayton, 1957.
- Daytonian. Dayton, Ohio: University of Dayton, 1956.
- “Queen of May Day Celebration.” University of Dayton News (Dayton, OH), May 20, 1949.
