MAY DAY--NOT THE CALL FOR HELP

Is spring really here? May 1st 2013 in New Jersey certainly suggest that is the fact.

For centuries May 1 was the day for the Maypole Dance performed by nubile young women. This tradition has fallen by the wayside as a result of greater sexual equality.

A history of the Maypole celebration obtained from several resources whose accuracy is open to question reveals that

“The earliest use of the Maypole in America occurred in 1628, where William Bradford, governor of New Plymouth, wrote of an incident where a number of servants, together with the aid of an agent, broke free from their indentured service to create their own colony, setting up a maypole in the center of the settlement, and behaving in such a way as to receive the scorn and disapproval of the nearby colonies, as well as an official officer of the king, bearing patent for the state of Massachusetts.”

Primarily found within the nations of Germanic Europe and the neighboring areas which they have influenced, its origins remain unknown, although it has been speculated that it originally had some importance in the Germanic paganism of Iron Age and early Medieval cultures, and that the tradition survived Christianization, albeit losing any original meaning that it had. It has been a recorded practice in many parts of Europe throughout the Medieval and Early Modern periods, although became less popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the tradition is still observed in some parts of Europe and among European communities in North America
In Germany and Austria the maypole (or Maibaum^[9]) is a tradition going back to the 16th century.^[10] It is a decorated tree or tree trunk that is usually erected either on 1 May – in Baden and Swabia - or on the evening before, for example, in East Frisia. In most areas, especially in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Austria, it is usual to have a ceremony to erect the maypole on the village green. The custom of combining it with a village or town fete, that usually takes place on 30 April, 1 May or at Pentecost (Whitsun), is widespread. This tradition is especially strong in the villages of the Bavarian Alps where the raising of the traditional maypole on 1 May in the village square is a cause for much celebration.

In Britain and Ireland, the maypole was found primarily in England and in areas of Wales, Scotland and Ireland which were under English influence. Although the earliest recorded evidence comes from a Welsh poem written by Gryffydd ap Adda ap Dafydd in the mid-14th century, in which he described how people used a tall birch pole at Llanidloes, central Wales.^[11] Literary evidence for maypole use across much of Britain increases in later decades, and "by the period 1350-1400 the custom was well established across southern Britain, in town and country and in both Welsh-speaking and English-speaking area

The rise of Protestantism in the 16th century led to increasing disapproval of maypoles and other May Day practices from various Protestants who viewed them as idolatry and therefore immoral.

Depending on the religious bent of the various rulers; monarchy or Commonwealth the Maypole was either banned or permitted. It had become a symbol of political significance. And with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 have been part of British life.

May 1^st once the traditional day for the Maypole Dance. In the US that tradition in the era of sexually segregated colleges was carried on for years at some women’s colleges. Vassar continued the tradition well into the end of the 20^th Century’

 This is a picture from Vassar College about 1909