How did people celebrate May Day with poles and dancing? Was this strictly something done in Europe or was there a time when people in the United States also made merry on the first of May?
The article below, originally published in 1917, answers these questions.
May Poles and May Day Dancing
How These Customs Originated With the Romans Two Centuries B.C. and How They Are Being Revived Today
There are certain days in the year which from time immemorial have been the occasion for celebrations having some religious or national or seasonal significance. May day is partly religious and partly seasonal, or rather it may be said that May first was selected as a feast day because at that time of the year all nature is budding with new life and beauty affording an appropriate season for expressing the joyousness of human nature in the hope that it will be inspired with the freshness and invigorating spirit which nature so gloriously and bounteously exhibits at that time.
Festival of Flora
The actual basis for the May day festivities seems to have been the Roman Floralia celebrated from April 28 until May 3, and instituted at Rome in the year 238 B.C. Flora, to whom the feast was consecrated was likewise a fertility goddess and it may be taken for granted that the elements of her rites were similar to customs which had previously been associated with the festival of Maia. So like many of our feasts, May festivities are a survival of pagan days. For centuries it has been the custom for all ranks of people to go out Maying early in the morning on the first day of that month.
Even today in the north of England and in Sweden people rise shortly after midnight and walk to some neighboring wood, marching to the rhythm of music and after breaking off tree branches return home at day break and deck their homes with garlands of leaves and flowers. After part of the day is spent in feasting it has long been the custom to set up a May Pole and dance around it garlanding it in flowers. In the ancient days it was erected in a convenient part of the village and consecrated to Flora the Goddess of Flowers. In Sweden the oxen were wreathed in garlands and driven in from the farms to the pole, the boys and girls dancing about the animals as they lumbered along the roads. Frequently there was a battle of flowers and the crowning of a Queen of May. There was music and feasting all day long.
One of the songs sung at these festivals away back in the sixteenth century runs as follows:
“Come lasses and lads, take leave of your dads,
And away to the May Pole hie;
For every he, has got him a she,
And the minstrels standing by,
For Willy has gotten his Jill, and
Johnny has gotten his Joan,
To jig it, jig it, jig it, up and down.”
May Day In England
While many of the countries celebrated May day by erecting poles and by dancing, England seems to have been the leader in establishing the festival. In speaking of may in England in 1623, a writer of that day bemoans the fact that many of the finest trees were sacrificed for May Poles to satisfy the pleasure loving people, who “frolicked from early morn until midnight,” singing the couplet:
“The May Pole is up,
Now give me a cup,
I’ll drink to the garlands around it,
But first unto those
Whose hands did compose
The glory of flowers that crown’d it.”
The May Pole was usually paid for by popular subscription by the villagers. Several men were paid to go into the country on May Day eve and cut down a large tree and bring it into town followed by the populace, who danced and sang as the tree was dragged through the streets to the public square. There it was set up and garlanded with flowers and streamers. Sometimes flags were used as a decoration. At one time a May Pole set up in Chester, England, had for its decoration the St. George red cross with a white pennant or streamer emblazoned with a red cross terminating like the blade of a sword.
May Poles Ordered Down
There is some controversy as to whether the May Pole had its origin in England or France, but it is certain that both countries had them during the early part of the seventeenth century for at that time a sort of wave of puritanism swept over both countries and for a time May Poles were forbidden. An Act was passed by the English Parliament in 1644, ordering all May Poles removed as they were a menace to church worship. May Poles were not permitted to be erected again until after the Restoration. In France, Charles I in 1633 decided that May Poles tended to keep the people from divine service, and were a detriment to religion, so the May Poles came down, and the French people had to content themselves for a time with going to the woods and bringing in branches with which they decked their homes. Even May Day dancing was prohibited for a time.
The planting and decorating of May Poles are known as far back as 1499, when the poles were frequently adorned with small gilded pennants. Sometimes a flower pot filled with posies was placed on the top. Many of the Poles in the early days were painted blue and white and kept standing from season to season, being repainted early in the spring of each year. London had many May Poles before the wave of Puritanism swept over the country. Many parishes vied with each other in the height and decoration of the poles.
Famous Poles
The most famous English May Pole was erected just after the Restoration, when in 1661, the populace had a great May Day jollification by erecting a tall pole in the most conspicuous part of the Strand. It was brought in from the country in triumph, with music and drum beating. It was raised by seamen who were sent for that purpose, by the Duke of York, and was decorated with gilt crowns. Authors frequently referred to it and in Pope’s writing we find:
“Where the tall May Pole once overlooked the Strand.”
In the year 1713, the members of both Houses of Parliament went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to render thanks for the Peace of Utrecht. On this occasion the orphans of London were seated on stands directly back of the Pole, which was decorated with English flags for the occasion. They watched the procession from this point and sang hymns as the parade passed. The Pole was taken down four years later and purchased by Sir Isaac Newton, to be used at Wanstead, England, for the support of his great telescope, which had been presented to the Royal Society by the French astronomer Hugon. Other May Poles are scattered over rural England one of which supports the weathercock in the church yard at Pendleton.
In Germany, especially in Salsbury and Munich the May Pole is still popular. Wooden figures dressed to represent German peasant are set up at its base and the girls and boys dance around the wooden figures singing German folk songs.
The May Pole customs were brought to the United States by the English emigrants, and nearly every city still has its May Pole in the park on May Day. In New York City the fete is carried out on a large scale, hundreds of children taking part and dancing around the huge pole set up in Central Park.
Dancing has always been a part of feast days – in ancient times a part of the religious exercises and in late years a part of all festivals. It seems especially appropriate as a part of the May Day fetes. In Rome during the feast of Flora the most beautiful dances were executed by professionals who were gathered together from the different places of amusement and all day long various exhibitions were given. Many of the dancers represented certain flowers and formed chains of human posies. In Holland, Germany, and England May Day dances were most elaborate and rehearsals were held for weeks before the event.
Robin Hood
Often plays were given in which dancing was the important part. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in England the play of Robin Hood was popular. This was generally held on a large green field roped off so as to keep the spectators from pressing too close to the performers. All the characters so well known to Americans through the opera of Robin Hood took part, Maid Marian being the premiere danseuse of the occasion. Little John and Will Scarlet danced on the green waving branches of spring blossoms while Friar Tuck did a Bachinalian dance with his jug of wine. At the close the villagers were allowed to join in the dancing which continued far into the night.
In Scotland the Robin Hood games were enacted with great vivacity at various places, particularly at Edinburgh and in connection with these were the sports of the Abbott of Isobedience. A strange half serious burlesque on some of the ecclesiastics of the day. The Abbott usually took part in the dance and was robbed over and over by Robin Hood’s merry men. Maid Marian shot him with Cupid’s darts and he fell at her feet. At times the dances became what is known in American slang as “rough house.” This burlesque was finally stopped by the authorities.
Morris Dances
The famous Morris dance given on May Day had its origin in England during the reign of Eduard III, but did not become universal until the time of Henry VII. At that time it becomes most fashionable and Royalty took part in it. It was by no means easy to dance and required long practice. The performers usually had little bells sewed on their costumes which were turned in musical intervals. During one part of the dance the men leaped over swords while the girls danced back and forth between ribbon streamers. At another time during the dance, hobby horses were introduced. In the early days the Morris dancing on May Day was carried out with no little ceremony. While Royalty breakfasted about noon a boy would come into the room with his face blackened, and his forehead bound with white and yellow bands and bells affixed to his ankles. The boy then proceeded to give a dance, the great feature of which was to strike the right and left heels upon the ground twice alternatively and then both heels together to produce a jingling of bells. When he had finished, the Court went to the veranda and watched the Morris dance on the green near the May Pole. A sword bearer usually accompanied the Morris dancers, holding a pound cake on the end of his sword. The cake was deftly sliced by the dancers, great skill being required to cut off an even slice.
The Furry dance is also a revival of the ancient May Day customs and originated in Cornwall, England. It begins with the collection of flowers and the making of garlands. Then couples hand in hand trip around the green. A wreath of flowers is worn by each dancer, and as the partners are continually changing the effect is that the dancers are linked together in a great chain of flowers. The couples sing as they dance. A fine May is said to augur a prosperous year for the crops and the dances are to celebrate such good fortune.
Source: The Bridgeport evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.), 01 May 1917.
