Maypole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article discussed the tall wooden pole. For other uses see Maypole (disambiguation)
The maypole is a tall wooden pole (traditionally of hawthorn or birch), sometimes erected with several long coloured ribbons suspended from the top, festooned with flowers, draped in greenery and strapped with large circular wreaths, depending on local and regional variances. What is often thought of as the "traditional" English/British maypole (a somewhat shorter, plainer version of the Scandinavian pole with ribbons tied at the top and hanging to the ground) is a relatively recent development of the tradition and is probably derived from the picturesque, Italianate dances performed in mid-19th century theatricals. It is usually this shorter, plainer maypole that people (usually school children) perform dances around, weaving the ribbons in and out to create striking patterns.
With roots in Germanic paganism, the maypole traditionally appears in most Germanic countries, Germanic country-bordering and countries invaded by Germanic tribes after the fall of the Roman Empire (like Spain, France and Italy), but most popularly in Germany, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Finland in modern times for Spring, May Day, Beltane and Midsummer festivities and rites.
Contents |
[edit] Regional traditions
[edit] Germany
[edit] Sweden
In Sweden it is usually called a midsommarstång, as it appears at the Midsummer celebrations, but it is also called majstång, as the word maja means to decorate with greens and that is exactly how most Swedes decorate them. They appear in many varieties, the most common being a cross with two rings hanging from the "arms" and the pole is popularly identified with the male sex and the rings with the female.[citation needed] Garlands of leaves and flowers are usually wrapped around the pole.
Sometimes a crown of flowers is placed on top of the maypole, supported by the ribbons, so that it gradually descends the pole as the ribbons are woven together, finally falling to the ground.
Today maypole dances are often done without dividing the participants by gender, simply having them in pairs facing one another so half go one way and half go the other.
In Sweden similar traditions were once observed but today the pole is the centre of traditional ring dances, the songs being more or less the same as during the dances around the Christmas tree. Arrangements are usually made by local traditional groups. Swedish speaking parts of Finland often celebrate Midsummer with a midsommarstång as well.
[edit] United Kingdom
Puritans outlawed the display and dancing around maypoles in the English Interregnum, as they regarded it as a heathen symbol, as well as one associated with licentiousness. When the Restoration occurred in 1660, common people in London, in particular, put up maypoles "at every crossway," according to Aubrey. The largest was in the Strand, near the current St. Mary le Strand church. The maypole there was the tallest by far, and it stood until being blown over by a high wind in 1672, when it was moved to Wansted in Essex and served as a mount for a telescope (Harvey 529).
In the countryside, may dances and maypoles appeared sporadically even during the Interregnum, but the practice was revived substantially and joyously after the Restoration. By the 19th century, the maypole had been subsumed into the symbology of "Merry Old England." The addition of intertwining ribbons seems to have been influenced by a combination of 19th century theatrical fashion and visionary individuals such as John Ruskin in the 19th century. Pairs of boys and girls (or men and women) stand alternately around the base of the pole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until the merry-makers meet at the base.
There are also more complex dances for set numbers of (practised) dancers, (the May Queen dancing troups), involving complicated weaves and un-weaves, but they're not well known today. The Maypole is usually erected on a village green and events are often supervised by local Morris dancing groups.
A somewhat different Mayday Maypole tradition existed in some regions, which was the carrying of smaller, highly decorated sticks, with hoops or cross-sticks or swags attached, covered with flowers, greenery or artificial materials such as crepe paper. Children would take these hand-held poles to school on May Day morning and prizes may be awarded for the most impressive. This tradition is known as garlanding and was a central feature of Mayday celebrations in central and southern England until the mid-19th century when it began to be replaced by formally organised school-centred celebrations. It still occurs from place to place but is invariably a reinstatement of a local custom that had lapsed decades earlier.
In 1780 Kilmarnock Council, now in East Ayrshire, paid Robert Fraser 2s. 6d. for dressing a Maypole, one of the last recorded examples of the rural festival of the first of May in Scotland, having been put down by Act of Parliament immediately after the Reformation in 1560 (Paterson 1866).
[edit] Czech Republic
The maypole (májka or máj) is also still popular in the Czech Republic, in country villages. Villages compete to get taller maypoles than their neighbors, and during the night the youths of a village guard the maypole to keep ruffians from neighboring villages from knocking it over (while at the same time attempting forays into neighboring villages to knock over the maypoles of others).
[edit] Sri Lanka
In the 2005 Perahera (procession) at Kataragama in Sri Lanka; children in local dress, plaited tapes and clashed sticks as they danced around a moving, portable "Maypole." They then reversed direction to un-plait the tapes around the moving maypole: A very impressive and skilful dance around a moving Maypole!
It was not clear whether they were portraying a period of English or European influence on Ceylon; or whether this is an older, local tradition?
[edit] United States
A maypole featured prominently in the early history of English colonization in North America, when colonist Thomas Morton put up a maypole at Merry Mount in 1627; in 1628, he was taken into custody by Puritans from nearby Plymouth Plantation. While not celebrated amongst the general public in the United States today, a Maypole Dance nearly identical to that celebrated in the United Kingdom is an important part of many Secondary or High School dances as part of a May Day celebration. Often the Maypole dance will be accompanied by other dances as part of a presentation to the public.
Communities with a large Swedish population often have Midsummer celebrations, such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Lindsborg, Kansas.
[edit] Symbolism
The Maypole is often considered a phallic symbol, coinciding with the worship of Germanic phallic figures such as that of Freyr. Potential other meanings include symbolism relating to the Yggdrasil, a symbolic axis linking the underworld, the world of the living, the heavens and numerous other realms. Also likely related, reverence for sacred trees can be found in surviving accounts of Germanic tribes, for example, Thor's Oak, Adam of Bremen's account of Sacred groves and the Irminsul.[citation needed]
The present day tradition of maypoles coincides geographically with the area of influence of the Germanic mythos.
However, the assertion of phallic symbolism in relation to Maypoles is based on speculation and possibility rather than evidence and does not reflect its current semiotic values: celebration, community, youthfulness and the arrival of summer.
[edit] Modern popular culture
- A maypole was featured in Men Without Hats' music video for the song "The Safety Dance".
- The 1973 British film The Wicker Man features a musical scene with boys dancing around a maypole while singing a pagan song. The scene is continued in a classroom where an all girl class is taught the phallic symbolism of the maypole.
[edit] See also
- Maypole dance
- Mount Wollaston
- Petrosomatoglyph - Maypole and standing stone symbolism.
[edit] External link
- Photos of a traditional installation of a Maypole in a Bavarian village.
[edit] References
- "Maypole in the Strand" in Harvey, Paul and Dorothy Eagle, eds. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967. pp. 528-529.
- Paterson, James (1863-66). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. Pub. J. Stillie. Edinburgh. Pp.394 - 395.
