Saturday 2 May 2020

The May Pole


I have shared this photo on a previous blog several years ago, it was taken on May Day around the year 1910. My Nana, Violet Popplewell is the little girl in the front marked with an X. She once told me that her ribbon was the colour red.
May Day has been celebrated in the northern hemisphere, in one incarnation or another, for centuries. Predominantly falling on the 1st May, on May Day people from all around the world celebrate the first day of spring. The quintessential symbol of the May Day holiday is the maypole.
A long, thin pole is erected and intertwining ribbons are attached, whereby the maypole dance is performed. The participants move in concentric circles about the garland-festooned pole, each holding a coloured ribbon, and work together to plait the fabric, unravelling it by performing the dance in reverse. The maypole is the focal point for a carefully choreographed ceremony that creates kaleidoscopic patterns of overlapping multi-coloured ribbons. It is an ancient custom still performed at spring fetes and village greens yearly.
These young school girls were all pupils of the Oxford Road Primary School in Bridlington, North Yorkshire.

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