How to Make a Maypole
By Cypress Knee
"The May Pole tradition" is a celebrated dance and ritual of Indo-European
Paganism that was later adapted by Christianity, and then "holiday culture."
In terms of "holiday culture", I mean the current trend within our
culture to take really traditional practices & rites and commercialize them
or turn them into a non-religious "fun" holiday game or party favor.
As there is nothing wrong with this evolution or abstraction of tradition in
itself, its very important to understand the tradition and to respect its origins.
The May Pole Dance is a celebration of "May Day", "Walpurgisnacht",
or "Beltane", which traditionally falls on April 30th or May 1st.
Originally known as "Beltane or Bealtaine" , which in Irish Gaelic
means "Fires of Bel" or "Bright Fires" it is the celebration
of Summers first fires beginning to stir.
Traditionally it was celebrated by a band of tribespeople (men & women)
going out into the woods, gathering the May pole, vines, flowers, wreaths, and
greens - breaking in-between to celebrate Summers warmth in the guise of body
heat frolicking in the leaves. The Tree was located (- one of which was very
straight and relatively thin 2-4 inches thick at its base), was apologized to,
given homage, offering or sacrifice, and a Beltane prayer was said before it.
Then it was cut. This fallen tree was trimmed then carried by the band back
to the village to be decorated.
The women were busy making the ribbons and dying the cloth with natural dyes
such as turmeric (bright yellow), blackberry (deep red/purple), blueberry (purple/red),
red cabbage leaves (blue), onion skin (orange), coltsfoot (green), beet juice
(red), just to name a few.
The women were also very busy making the wreath that would crown it - covered
with that seasons bountiful and beautiful flowers. The men were busy trimming
the tree - removing all branches, and making it extremely straight. They dug
the shaft into which the tree would be planted.
