May Day

Yeah, I know May Day was the 1st of May—but I hadn’t had a chance to look up the history of May Day and such til now….

Germany celebrates May Day by putting up Maypoles. The Maypole and the dance around it symbolizes spring and the fruits that spring promises to bring.

The traditional Maypole dance starts with long ribbons attached high up on a pole. Each dancer holds the end of a ribbon. The circle of dancers begins far out from the pole, so the ribbons are kept fairly taut. There are an even number of dancers, facing each other. All dancers move in the direction they are facing, passing right shoulders with the next, and so on around to braid the ribbons over-and-under around the pole. Those passing on the inside will have to duck, those passing on the outside raise their ribbons to slide over.

In Bavaria, May 1st is an especially important day. In Bavarian villages, it has been the custom for centuries to cut a tall and straight tree, a day or two before May 1st, place it in the middle of the village and decorate it with a wreath of spring flowers and colorful ribbons. One of the traditions is to attempt to steal the Maypole of the neighboring village the night before, and to hold it for ransom, usually a couple kegs of beer. At the same time villagers had to make sure that their Maypole was not stolen by their neighbors.

We didn’t attend the May Day celebrations in our town, but we did take pictures of the Maypole in our town…

 

*************************************************************************************************information from the German Culture website