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Remembering "Bringing in the May"
Growing up, May Day mornings were my mother's perfect excuse to get me out of bed early on a school day. By the time I came in from the garden with a basket overflowing with royal purple and golden iris, pink parrot tulips and fragrant lilacs, she had laid out everything we needed to make colored paper cornucopias. We filled the cornucopias, attached ribbon handles, and I was sent off on secret visits round to the houses of the neighboring mothers and grandmothers. At each house it was the same… hang the May basket, ring the doorbell and run hide behind a tree. These baskets were gifts from the "fairies" to the "May Queens".
To continue the celebration, the first week of May marked the time of the city-wide field day. The relay races and broad jumps took up the afternoons, but the starting event was always the May Pole weaving, the culmination of a month of practice during 6th grade recess. Twenty tall white poles filled the field, each strung with ribbons in the different school colors. On competition day, the field was a rainbow of flashing colors, as we danced with military precision to an old folk tune and in turns and twists made perfect basket weaves of ribbons around the poles.
About the same time, the Catholic school down the street was having a procession where they began their field day and picnic with the flower crowning of one of the sixth grade girls who became, for the day, the Queen of May.
Thirty years later, none of these quaint traditions has survived in the town of my childhood.
Though the Maypole dance competition has long since disappeared from the public schools, it remains one of my sweetest school souvenirs and I still remember nearly every detail … maybe because our class had the best red and white basket weave and won the competition ! Here's the recipe…
For the ideal, authentic old-fashioned Maypole dance, you will need:
-One very tall, smooth pole, preferably attached to a solid X shaped base of 4 x 4 inch lumber… (In the past they were made from birch trees.)
-16 ribbons attached to the top of the pole… ours were fixed with large metal "eyes" and the 3 inch wide ribbons hooked onto them. We didn't use the ring of flowers often seen in modern Maypole dances because the winners of the competition were those who had the most perfect weave.
-16 dancers, plus at least 2 people to sit on the base weighing it down. When the dancers start skipping, the pole starts rocking!
-music… make it something lively and with 8 beats… If you play piano, you should be able to find sheet music of European folk "aires" and "gavottes".
Ready to dance? Divide the dancers into two groups of 8, "white ribbons" and "red ribbons" for example.
Each group of 8 counts off, and the number 1's, number 2's etc partner off so there are 8 couples of red and white.
Each dancer wraps her ribbon tightly in her right hand and faces the maypole, backing up until the ribbons are held taut. Girls and ribbons alternate red and white around the pole with the red partner standing to the left of the white partner.
All girls turn right shoulder out and always holding ribbon shoulder-high and taut, walk counterclockwise 8 beats, then turn
around and walk clockwise 8 beats.
All girls face the pole and skip sideways 8 beats to the right, then back clockwise 8 beats.
The red girl walks toward the pole and under the ribbon of the white girl, then back to her place.
Their ribbons are now joined. The dancers skip again 8 beats to the right, then 8 beats to the left. Then the reds take 4 steps forward to the center, and give a crack-the-whip motion to their ribbons. Then they step back 4. The whites repeat the same motion.
Get ready to weave… The whites face the reds. Using an arm motion like that of cutting wheat with a scythe, the reds skip forward, not allowing any slack in the ribbon they dip under the ribbons of their partners, then raising the ribbon high and taut over the next, alternating the over and under motion. At the same time, the whites skip forward and repeat the same over and under motion. As they move, a basket weave appears the length of the pole and the dancers move nearer and nearer the center until the skip slows to a concentrated weaving.
When finished, skip back and admire.!
Leigh Barret, May Day 2006
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