EXCERPTS FROM MAY POLE DANCING

May Day began as a Spring festival long ago. People gathered together on the first day of May to celebrate the coming of Summer. There are a lot of different customs that have been a part of May Day festivities. Some people would gather flowers and put them by their doors and windows to keep out troublesome fairies. Some people would put out their old hearth fires and gather with the people in their village to start a new fire to take home. Cutting down a tree and putting up a Maypole in the middle of a village is another popular custom. Ribbons are attached to the tree and are woven together by dancers. One more popular custom is filling May Baskets with flowers and other goodies to give to friends and loved ones. Some people still celebrate the pagan festival of Beltaine on the first of May. Many of the old customs are part of this celebration.

Maypole Dance : Maypole dancing is a traditional form of folk dance from western Europe, especially England, Sweden and Germany. Dancers dance in a circle each holding a coloured ribbon attached to a central pole, known as the maypole. By the movements of the dancers the ribbons are intertwined and plaited either on to the pole itself or into a web around the pole. The dancers may then retrace their steps exactly in order to unravel the ribbons. Maypole dancing is extremely ancient and is thought to have Germanic pagan fertility symbolism. It is traditionally performed in the spring around the festival of May Day, but in Sweden it is during the midsummer festivities. It was revived in the early twentieth century in a more genteel form.

My experience with MAY POLE DANCING was: When I was going to Hamilton Grade School in Mount Pleasant, Utah all the way through from 1st to 6th grades we would braid the May Pole on the 1st of May, I didn't know why at the time except that it was the beginning of Spring and it was a celebration of those things that Spring bring. We would dress up in our Sunday Best and our families would come to the school to watch this dance that we had been practicing for some time. In the attached picture, they are not all dressed in their Sunday best but I got it out of Google and it is pretty near the way we would do the dance. This celebration was something we all looked forward to with a lot of anticipation, the pole would be placed on the lawn out in front of the school and a lot of chairs would be placed for the audience to sit and enjoy themselves. I think the custom of May Pole Dancing ended very shortly after the late 30's but I am not positive. I just wanted all of you to be aware of the celebration and I don't think it would hurt anyone to begin it all again. If you want to learn more about it go to Google and put in May Pole Dancing or just click on dancers in the previous paragraph.