Celebrate Beltane With a Giant Pole

The maypole dance is a spring ritual long known to Western Europeans. Usually performed on May 1, which is Beltane, or May Day, the folk custom is done around a pole garnished with flowers and ribbon to symbolize a tree. Practiced for generations in countries such as Germany and England, this tradition dates back to the dances ancient people used to do around actual trees in hopes of harvesting a large crop.

The pole was erected on the village green or common, or even a handy field—thrust into the ground either permanently or on a temporary basis—and brightly colored ribbons attached to it. Young people came and danced around the pole, each holding the end of a ribbon. As they wove in and out, men going one way and women the other, it created a sleeve of sorts—the enveloping womb of the earth—around the pole. By the time they were done, the Maypole was nearly invisible beneath a sheath of ribbons.

In the British Isles, 17th-century Puritans began to frown upon the use of the Maypole in celebration—after all, it was a giant phallic symbol in the middle of the village green—so it got banned in a number of places.

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1627, Thomas Morton stuck a giant maypole in his field, brewed a batch of hearty mead, and invited village lasses to come frolic with him. His neighbors were, as you can probably imagine, appalled. Myles Standish himself came along to break up the sinful festivities, but Morton didn’t care—he even wrote a bawdy song about it, celebrating “delight… in Hymen’s joys.”

Despite the best efforts of religious zealots to ban sexy spring shenanigans, by the mid nineteenth century the tradition regained popularity, and May Day celebrations ended up being a popular part of many church events. Today’s Maypole dance is likely connected to the revival in the 1800s and not to the ancient version of the custom.

Here’s how you can plan your own Maypole celebrations! Hold a Maypole Dance

Image of Maypole at Archer School for Girls (former Eastern Star Home) in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, by Jennifer Arrow (Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 2.2 via Flickr)