By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

A nearly forgotten Saco tradition will be reborn this Sunday to celebrate spring.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco and Biddeford will host a May Day Festival Sunday to celebrate May Day, Earth Day and Beltane, an ancient Celtic feast celebrated May 1. The event revives the May Fair, which was held in Saco from around 1840 to 1964.

The May Day Festival will be 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 60 School St. in Saco. 

Anne Dobson, archivist for the church, said the May Fair began at a time when the city allowed each church to use the city hall auditorium one weekend each month. The church, then known as Second Parish Unitarian, started the festival on the first weekend in May.

“It consisted usually of a dance, a play, a supper and a bazaar,” Dobson said. “The May Fair was a really big deal.”

Church member Tarik Sivonen said the original maypole used during the festival was stored in the church basement. After using it with religious education classes, interest in the tradition developed into organizing a festival.

 “I’ve always been interested in having a May Day celebration,” he said.

Sivonen said the festival will include cooperative games, celebratory spring crafts, maypole dancing and enactments from the Middle Ages. An area will be set up for dogs to join in the festivities, he said.

The documentary “Vanishing of the Bees” will be shown in the sanctuary at 3 p.m. The documentary discusses the disappearance of honeybees from beehives around the world.

Dobson said some church and community members still remember attending the festival. Marguerite Clark Gardner of Hollis shared her memories of the festival for a church history project. Gardner, whose birthday is in early May, recalled sitting in the city hall balcony watching the festivities and thinking “how wonderful it was the whole town came to her birthday party,” Dobson said. 

Church records show the festival was the highlight of the church year, Dobson said. A 1963 program for the 120^th festival lists events such as music, a play,  coronation parade, dances and maypole braiding. Booths featured baked goods, fortune telling, candy, gifts and balloons.

Profits from the fair were given to the Social Circle, a women’s club. In 1918, profits were donated to the Red Cross, according to church financial records.

Dobson said she is looking forward to helping children make May baskets during the festival.

 “I think it’s a wonderful idea for any community to celebrate warmer weather,” she said.

For more information, call 282-0062 or go to www.uuchurchsacobiddeford.com.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.