Delightful Dillo Day

Students celebrate spring.

This is Dillo Day.

Classes are nearly finished for the school year, and warmer weather has finally arrived.

Most students soon scatter for the summer — or maybe longer.

But in May it’s time to celebrate.

The contemporary Armadillo Day has its roots in May Day, once a celebration of spring with pomp and a Maypole dance. In the 1970s a group of Northwestern students known as Armadillo Productions sponsored a daylong music festival as an alternative to Mayfest and Spring Thing.

In the modern rite of spring, free food and good music lure students to the lakeside for dancing, games and fireworks. Vendors peddle computers, cheap T-shirts and expensive hot dogs. Barbeque aromas waft through the neighborhoods near campus. Frisbees fly through the air.

Indeed, spring has arrived.