Origins of the Maypole

By Debra

No-one is really sure where the origins of the May Pole lie. It has been suggested that there may be a link between it and the World Tree, Yggdrasil or other mythic trees which connect the world of men with the heavens - the "Axis Mundi". Although the Saxons venerated a pillar of wood called "Irminsul", there is no evidence to suggest a link between it and the May Pole. It is thought their origin was as a way of displaying garlands of new Spring flowers and plants in Spring celebrations. Later they were decorated with flags and handkerchiefs and ribbons and painted white and green.

The first written record is a mid 14th century poem written in Welsh which describes a birch tree which the villagers would dance around. Chaucer wrote about a permanent May Pole in the late 14th century. There is other evidence that by the mid to late 14th century, May Poles were fairly well established in the South of England. The Scots and the Irish had May fire festivals instead of May Poles, except where there was an English influence. People would dance around the May Pole, and use it as a focus for their festivities. Dancing around the May Pole has been recorded on old wood-cuts of "rustic" Spring festivals. The dancers were usually young couples who would:

"Dance about both in and out,
Turn and kiss, and then for greeting".

Celebrations with a May Pole were outlawed as un-Sunday-like during the Reformation. The Reformationists despised the mixed-gender dancing, flirting, drunkenness and Sunday merry-making. The festivities were reinstated during the Restoration by Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, who both liked them. From then on, the May Pole went in and out of fashion, but it wasn't until 1840 that the May Pole as we know it emerged. The ribbons that are today attached to the top, did not appear until 1836 when a play by JT Harris called "Richard Plantagenet" had one on the stage. The dancers each held a ribbon, and as they danced around the May Pole, they wove a pattern with them. After this, the ribbonned May Pole began to appear around the country, and by the 1880's they were a common sight again, the ribbonned dances replacing the older ones. But it  wasn't until this century, around the 1930's that children as the dancers became the norm, and so the May Pole has survived to this day.  

But alas, maybe not for much longer. This is paraphrased form our local newspaper, "The Ossett and Horbury Observer", where it made this week's headline... "The May festivities are under threat as a lack of cash, and community indifference threaten a 125 year old tradition. The  May Pole committee secretary was appealing for help in staging the event. The event is quite costly to stage, funds for which are normally raised locally with auctions etc. But each year the amount raised is less, and the money needed is more. Appeals for sponsorship fell upon deaf ears".  

Bright Blessings,

Debra

Subject: Beltane - The Maypole Dance

* The Maypole Dance *
From How to Dance the Revived Ancient Dances by Ardern Holt (1907)

The maypole was set up in pretty well every village in the good old times, the lads and lasses dancing round it. It took a prominent place in the May Day celebrations, and the Morris dancers were greatly aided thereby. The peasantry went into the woods for the flowers wherewith to decorate the huge pole of extreme height which took a yoke of many oxen to draw it. They danced and they sang and made merry to their hearts' content in all the country side, and even in Cornhill where the maypole was higher than the adjacent church spires, and the dance was always hilarious, joyous, and full of action, the streamers from the high pole floating in the breeze as the dancers in a circle, hand-in-hand, twisting in and out plaited and unplaited the ribbons that hung from the top.

In order that the men and maidens of to-day may be able to carry out the dance at village festivals and charity entertainments, the following instructions may be of use:

The block to hold the pole must be heavily weighted and have a revolving pivot at the top. About a dozen dancers is a suitable number, twelve men and women, each holding a ribbon suspended from the top which they carry as the maypole is brought in with much ceremony and sunk in the block.

Then the dancers dart away from the maypole to the full extent of their ribbons, and the manipulation of these streamers should be well studied beforehand, for if they become wrongly intertwisted the whole effect is spoilt and it would be necessary to take the pole out of its socket or they would not unplait.

Form a circle round the maypole, and measure ribbons from the pole in a straight line.

1. Dance round without plaiting and reverse all round; do this twice; throughout the dance all the movements are reversed.

2. Dance a chain about the pole, plaiting the ribbons the while round in and out, and do this backwards just the same way to unplait. If not rightly done the pole must be taken out before proceeding, which spoils the effect.

3. Ladies take their places and dance round the gentlemen who run to the center and kneel on one knee. Then the ladies trip to center and do the same, the gentlemen dancing round. This is followed by a pause of two seconds, the music playing the while, then everybody return to their places with ribbons untwisted. All dance round in a plain circle without plaiting and reverse.

4. Ladies to center, ribbons outstretched held in both hands in front. All revolve round the pole, the ladies back to back, reverse, and return to their places. Gentlemen do the same. Then ensues a three-seconds pause, and the dancers measure their ribbons before they repeat the plaiting chain, and reverse. After this half a minute's rest.

5. Ladies trip to the center taking hold of the pole with the left hand and holding on firmly; the gentlemen do this with the right hand. Then reverse quickly and change hands afterwards. Forming a circle they go round without plaiting and reverse. Then all stop short, measure the ribbons, and put the ring attached to the end of all the streamers in the mouth and holding hands all go round very steadily and smoothly in a circle and reverse.

This is followed by a slight pause, the music continuing, and then the men and women form into a final tableau, and after half a minute's pause trip away carrying the maypole with them.   

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