Maytide was born on March 23, 2020, as a spur-of-the-moment activity to help pass the time during the pandemic quarantine. Originally dubbed May-O-Ween, it started off as an ongoing series of posts in the After Dark forum of Matt Caracappa’s Dinosaur Dracula site, and as it marked off each night leading up to some vague “big occasion”, it shamelessly admitted to being little more than a bargain-basement knockoff of Matt’s legendary Halloween Countdowns. However, similar to how that Cosmic Conflicts Hank Leeloo figure you found at a flea market bears a less than perfect resemblance to an official Star Wars Han Solo figure, May-O-Ween was an imprecise and lumpy imitation of Matt’s popular yearly event with some glaring differences.
The biggest variation was that May-O-Ween was a halfway-to-Halloween countdown, finishing on the 31st of May instead of October, and exactly what was supposed to happen when it reached its climax was never satisfactorily explained. (The eventual noncommittal suggestion was just to watch some movies.) Also, while the nightly posts supplied links to spooky or offbeat content, as Matt’s After Dark updates often do during his site’s official countdowns, May-O-Ween focused on material more related to the warmer seasons than harvest time. Sharks instead of scarecrows, for example, and summer camps rather than pumpkin patches. Additionally, some of the May-O-Ween posts pretended to be part of an online curriculum of paranormal and unusual studies, linking to articles and quizzes on topics like cryptozoology and ghosthunting, and offering virtual field trips to quirky museums and attractions.
But just as you might become oddly fond of that Hank Leeloo figure after keeping it around long enough, as May-O-Ween progressed (and it progressed for quite awhile, continuing uninterrupted for a full 70 nights), I grew kind of attached to it. And the thought of turning it into its own unique celebration, one that would be independent of Halloween and exist on its own terms, became more and more appealing. I liked the idea of a seasonal festivity that pays tribute to some of my favorite things that other holidays don’t feature nearly enough, like dinosaurs and Bigfoot and offbeat roadside stops. Plus the month of May lays claim to several unique pop culture milestones all its own, like World Dracula Day, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee’s shared birthday, the release dates of every movie in the first and second Star Wars trilogies, there’s really quite a list. So I rechristened it Maytide to help give it its own identity, and created a collection of holiday icons – Millie the Mermaid, Mollie the Flying Sorcerer, and Mellie the Dryad – which were then beautifully rendered by professional artists Melissa Ballesteros P. and Charley Twerp. I also created Rayburn, a tiki-styled sun image, to serve as the general symbol of Maytide, because any good celebration needs a general symbol.
After putting that much effort into it, I had no choice but to embrace Maytide as an ongoing annual thing. Not that I needed an excuse to celebrate Ray Harryhausen movies and take roadtrips to eccentric tourist traps, but I’m happy to have one all the same. And you’re all welcome to share it with me if it sounds appealing.
And of course it sounds appealing. There’s Hawaiian poke bowls and giant twine ball attractions and psychobilly surf tunes and all manner of things! Does Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving offer any of that? I think not! (Unless your own unique traditions do happen to include those things, but just roll with me here, okay?)