Does anyone have a maypole event in their community?

Hmm, I remember dancing around the maypole when I was a child on Staten Island, but I do not remember celebrating it anywhere else when I grew up.

Perhaps it is a localized custom?

At my creative arts elementary school in Milwaukee, we’d dance round one as kids. But I think it was just my hippie-ish, Montessori-ish school that did it. After the 2 years I was there, I’ve not seen one since.

There’s a Ren Faire going on in S. Connecticut over the next few weekends. I’m sure they’ll have one up.

@marinelife It’s a European tradition I think. Pagan maybe? I always think of the Northeast and parts of the Midwest as maintaining the European traditions, but that is probably totally wrong. It’s just I hear my friends from those areas talk about the foods from the countries their families came from, like Packzi’s by the Polish, and celebrations like the Tulip festival in Holland, MI, etc. Here in the south they seem to celebrate southern things. But, I am kind of out of touch, because I don’t have children, so I am not up on a lot of community happenings. So it might just be I am old and out of touch. Lol.

I did the Maypole thing in New Jersey as a child. Very exciting to me then!

It wasn’t a maypole, that’s more Swedish, but we do have parades. Today I walked in our local May Day Parade.

A parade sounds nice.

I remember making and delivering May baskets to neighbors as a child in New England.

I also remember [maybe in New Jersey or Illinois?] two different nights of Halloween—one for treats and next night for tricks [especially on those who gave no treats].

When I was in elementary school, here in California we did the dance around the maypole.

Your question reminded me that when I was little, I had this wonderful book called The Giraffe Who Went to School. It was about a girl’s school who was getting prepared to do their maypole dance and a big wind came up and blew the pole away. Some how a giraffe, that must have escaped from the zoo, or something like that, ended up on the school yard. The teachers and the headmistress were very upset about this, but the little girls loved the giraffe. Someone got the idea of wrapping the ribbons around the giraffe’s neck, since their maypole was gone. The giraffe became a useful animal and everybody loved her and the giraffe was so happy to be loved. The pictures were amazing. I lost the book when we moved in the early 1970’s but I found a copy.SL500_AA300.jpg of it online, and now it’s back in my library. Thanks for reminding me. : )

I remember when I was in Rhode Island people used to go out for a special breakfast or something.

Here is TN people don’t even know from May Day or Maypoles it seems. I was just in my zumba class and I asked if they do any celebrations for May Day, and they started talking about Memphis in May, Memorial Day. So, I explained I meant for May 1st specifically and the maypole and one women said she did that as a child. She grew up in Jamaica.

@Kardamom That story is vaguely familiar to me. Possibly we were read it at school or at the library? If I had it at home I would remember it more clearly I would think.

I just did a maypole dance. But then again, I was at a neodruid celebrations, so…

We did May Day celebrations where I grew up in Virginia. It was sort of a field day event with the May Pole and a May queen and king and court. They were the people who held the streamers and wrapped them with the dance around the May Pole. It was fun and really exciting to be an elementary school aged kid watching and participating in this.

I think it’s cool but not for children. Dancing around the May pole is part of pagan fertility rituals that were prevalent before Christianity descended upon Europe. So were Easter eggs and the name Easter (Easter was named after Eostre a.k.a. Eastre)

Christianity adopted many of the preceding religions names and traditions in order to be accepted. That’s probably part of the reason most Americans and Europeans won’t accept Islam, they don’t want to lose Christmas.

@Ron_C So you don’t think kids should dye easter eggs, and get chocolate and plush bunnies?

@Ron_C and @JLeslie Well, thank goodness I’m pagan so my kid can do all those things.

I celebrate Eostre here in Norway, not Easter.

May 1st celebrations are the rest of the world’s ‘Labour Day’ if some of you American’s weren’t aware. It’s a day off work (not this year because it falls on a Sunday and no body is working anyway) and we celebrate the strides made for the working class and red is the colour of the day.

Our May Pole celebrations have less to do with May 1 and more to do with Midsummer Night, the longest day of the year, so the Easter connection.. well, I think the British did that much more recently (13–16 centuries..) , not the Germanic/Scandinavians where the practice is very much pagan and goes back much farther and has nothing to do with Easter or Eoster or even 1st of May (Gregorian Calender being a more recent invention).

@cazzie I assme you realize I like the maypole and Easter eggs and chocoate bunnies? I was not sure since you lumped me in with @Ron_C? Or, maybe you just addressed it to both us because we were talking back and forth.

@JLeslie I think kids should do things for fun. There is probably nothing wrong with any of the celebrations as long as they focus on the fun and not the inappropriate sexual content. Let kids be kids.

By the way, the idea of children participating in Good Friday rituals is much more disturbing than the pagan aspects of Easter. If I had to choose between kids celebrating fertility symbols or the torture and death of a person, I would encourage them to color eggs.

I have said it before, no children should be indoctrinated into ANY religion. That is the sort of decision that should only made by adults. I would label all religious texts, films, and ceremonies are Rated R.

@Ron_C Kids have no idea about any of the background on these things, and most adults don’t either. There are not many Pagans around; the people who most celebrate Easter, paint eggs and have symbols all over of bunnies is the Christians. If they real really wanted to stick to their reigion, they wold ot associate that Pagan stuff with Christianity, but the truth is most of them have no clue is my guess.

I’m Jewish, but I like the eggs and chocolate, and the celebrations for spring.

But, I am not trying to convince you of anything. If you don’t like the rituals, I respect that.

@JLeslie I didn’t think you were trying to convince me about anything. As for rituals, I like Christmas trees and easter eggs although I’m not that crazy about chocolate. You are right, most christians don’t really know how their rituals were derived. That doesn’t stop them from trying to force it on others.

I guess that is my real gripe, not the rituals but the element of coercion toward the non-believers.

@Ron_C Sure coercion bothers me too. And, the adoption of these fun rituals during very serious holidays bothers me in its own way. As a Jewish child I felt jealous on Christmas and left out. I wanted a tree and santa too. But, at this time in history I don’t think Christians have any clue how it makes non Christians children feel; it’s not purposeful. I frequently write Christians have all the fun and there are always Christians who have no clue what I am talking about, even if the conversation is about Christmas or Easter. They rarely think from the outsiders perspective it seems. Not that they have to in celebrating their holidays, they can commercialize and celebrate any way they want, as long as everyone else can too, and it is not dictated by our government.

As I get older I think the fun holidays for the kids are just fine, my religious holidays are not all gifts, decorations, and candy, and I like it like that. I like the focus just being my family getting together, or some supposed historical thing that happened, to remind us we have been through a lot and are still here.

@JLeslie I did lumping…. didn’t mean to confuse. sorry.
Now we know that we all like Easter, but perhaps for different reasons.
Oh.. and @Ron_C the ‘fertility’ thing with the May pole isn’t something we think kids need to be ‘protected’ from. They know how baby bunnies are born and why there are chicks and not edible eggs. The fertility we celebrate at Eostre means fertility of the soil and the sowing of the seeds and celebration and worship for a bountiful harvest as well as counting the number of lambs that survived. (which by the way.. the children here see the ram, cock, buck and bees do their jobs.. they know what’s what and it’s not shameful or hidden. It’s part of the celebration because without all the players, we would starve and we believe it is good and natural.) We show respect and appreciation to Mother Earth and her cycle of life so she feeds again for another year.

*feeds us again for another year…

@cazzie sounds pretty good but I don’t think it would play in Alabama.

@Ron_C Not even with a banjo on my knee?

@Ron_C How would Alabama spin it? Jesus liked bunnies?

@Jleslie I’ve been to Alabama and many churches don’t approve dancing or alcohol. I am pretty sure they would burn pagans at the stake.

@Ron_C Oh that. Lol. I just think in parts of Alabama they would not care about any other explanation, they would say eggs and bunnies are part of the Easter celebration, and ignore the rest. They pay attention to whatever their church is doing, the other voices mean nothing.

@Ron_C Yeah… I’ve heard about the kind of stakes they burn in Alabama….
http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/book121.htm

FACT: Jesus, being kosher, would never have come into contact with bunnies.

@incendiary_dan We aren’t talking about eating rabbit, well not in America. Well, I guess some people do eat rabbit in America, but it is not commonly eaten like chicken or beef.

@JLeslie I’m just saying, Leviticus strictly bans any association with rabbits, not just eating. Kooky book. I love me some rabbit stew.

@cazzie yeah, I thought that we were beyond that. I was in an unnamed state (out west) and this guy with a real backwoods accent said that “Obama’s going to start taxing things with too much sugar. I never saw a president that dumb”. It seems that they really admired George Bush jr. there. They miss a good old Texas boy in the White House. Further discussion implied that a black guy couldn’t handle the pressure of the office. I can see them burning crosses and hanging “undesirables”.

Yes, it’s very common in Germany.