Traditions: First Eucharist

First Eucharist has been celebrated at Mayfield nearly every year since the first ceremony with only two first communicants on May 5, 1932. In the early years it was held in the convent chapel with a breakfast following for the children and their families. In the later 1950s and early 1960s, the ceremony was held in December on the Senior School campus. The girls wore tea length white dresses and veils and for several years the boys wore white suits with knee length shorts. When the celebration returned to the Junior School auditorium in the late 1960s, the girls began wearing the white pinafores still worn today. And to the relief of every future second grade boy, the boys’ white suit was replaced with the standard concert dress grey pants and navy jacket. Today every spring a new group of second graders continues the tradition in a ceremony in the Greg Smith Memorial Gymnasium. Their number may have grown, but the simple joys and blessings of this special day remain.