Maypole Dance

Most people are familiar with the image of children holding colorful ribbons and weaving together a tapestry around a central pole. This tradition began as a fertility ritual but it continues to the present as a fun and festive activity to celebrate springtime. You'd be surprised how many place have maypole festivals. Snoop around in your community to see if there is an established ceremony. If not, maybe you could start it.

Maypole dance, ceremonial folk dance performed around a tall pole garlanded with greenery or flowers and often hung with ribbons that are woven into complex patterns by the dancers. Such dances are survivals of ancient dances around a living tree as part of spring rites to ensure fertility. Typically performed on May Day (May 1), they also occur at midsummer in Scandinavia and at other festivals elsewhere. They are widely distributed through Europe—e.g., “Sellenger’s Round” in England, the baile del cordón of Spain—and also are found in India. Similar ribbon dances were performed in pre-Columbian Latin America and were later integrated into ritual dances of Hispanic origin. Maypoles may also appear in other ritual dances, as in the Basque ezpata dantza, or sword dance.