Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Maypole dance

Performed on May 1 around a gaily painted pole decorated with streamers, garlands, and dyed eggshells, the maypole dance was an annual medieval celebration of spring's return.  Having trimmed themselves and the pole with green-sprigged flowers, rural dancers cavorted around it, hoping that their exuberant offering to nature would yield fertile crops and cattle in the coming year.  Similar rites to ensure fertility existed in pagan Rome, in the phallic festivals of India and Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and Mexico.  The Christian Easter and Jewish Passover observances include corresponding symbols. Dancers began the custom of braiding ribbons around the pole during the 19th century and still maintain this custom.  The dance that survives today in England preserves the steps and sometimes the spirit of the original but none of its ritual significance. 

Barbara Newman