International Workers Day Bean Supper
The Cumberland Museum and Archives presents it’s annual celebration of the workers on Sunday May the 1st at the Cumberland Cultural Centre at 6:00 pm. Please come out with your friends and family for a taste of traditional baked beans, and local libations and treats. Kids and individuals can participate in mural painting while remembering the “songs of the workers” and the stories of working people through the musical offerings. FMI: Visit Cumberland Museum
The Bean Supper commemorates the Big Strike of 1912 in Cumberland - a bitter and prolonged strike which saw miners’ families turned out of the company houses in which they lived. The families set up tent communities that are remembered today in the names of places such as “Strikers Beach.” The government, seeing the destitution of the miners, sent boxcar-loads of dried beans to Cumberland.
The Bean Supper also corresponds with International Workers Day - a celebration of the achievements of the labour movement held in countries around the world. Workers’ Day celebrations were an annual fixture in Cumberland until the closing of the last of the mines in 1966. The festivities featured a parade and rally for better living and working conditions. This serious business was then followed by a boisterous field day of sports activities, picnics and treats for the kids and an evening dance. 1942 Cumberland earned the unique distinction of being the only city in Canada to celebrate May Day.
Cumberland was never shy about celebrating “Workers Day,” so why not come out to dinner and keep the spirit alive? Come and be part of this annual celebration that is part of the very fabric of the Village of Cumberland. The achievements of workers in their struggle for safer, healthier and kinder working condition are achievements we all benefit from - regardless of our employment today.
Watch the Museum web site for more information about menus and entertainment.
