Rosalee Walls of the Georgetown Historical Society and the Return Day Committee, holds the ceremonial hatchet that is buried in Lewes Beach sand every other Novemeber in Georgetown, Del.

Lewes, Del. -- It's a legal "half holiday" in Sussex County. It brings winners and losers together to validate the end of the election. It's a parade. It's a party. It's Return Day. Rosalee Walls, president of Return Day in Sussex, Inc., will discuss the history of Return Day and provide some interesting and amusing anecdotes from this unique event at the Friday, October 20 program of Lewes Historical Society. Her presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Lewes Presbyterian Church hall, Kings Highway and Franklin Street in Lewes.

Begun in the late 1700s, following the relocation of the County Seat from Lewes to Georgetown, when election returns were read aloud to the electorate, Return Day has become a unique Delaware, and for that matter, a unique celebration in the U.S. For countless generations, Return Day has brought Delaware's entire slate of elected and not elected men and women to Georgetown to celebrate, to commiserate and "bury the hatchet" following long and sometime arduous campaigns.

Rosalee Walls has been a Return Day committee member since 1972 and was named president in 1990. She says the event has something for everyone: "We have a great street party the night before and then there is the parade on Return Day. We will have more than 40 horse-drawn carriages which carry the winners and losers of the November 7 election, there will be hundreds of paraders, many floats and several bands. We expect tens of thousands of spectators and party goers, too."

She says that the event has had its moments during her tenure. She talks about the Return Day fire that destroyed the ox roast pit and the roasting ox with it. "That almost put an end to our traditional ox roast," she said. "But somehow we got another pit and the roast went on as if nothing ever happened." She expressed disappointment about the last Return Day that was dampened by a steady day-long downpour: "The parade was shorter and fewer folks stayed around to hear the election returns read by Town Crier Layton Johnson, but the day went on and we got to the important part; what the event is all about-burying the hatchet," she said.

Walls will give a brief history of Return Day, explain why the hatchet is buried in sand brought from Lewes Beach, tell a few stories about the politicians and the people who have made Return Day memorable, and why it is called Return Day (be sure you say return and not returns). She and her committee of more than 100 Sussex Countians are getting things ready for the 2006 Return Day, Thursday, November 9 when long-time State Representative Tina Fallon will be Grand Marshall.

The program is free and the public, young and old, is cordially invited to attend. Light refreshments will be served following the presentation.

©2002-2005 The Lewes Historical Society