May Day Customs: Maypole Dance

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Y Fedwin, neu y Ganghen Hâf: The Manifestation, wishing the Summer Song [Maypole Dance]

England, Wales: Scandinavia, Germany, Russia: Each dancer holds the end of a colored ribbon attached to the top of a long pole in the ground. The dancers move and the ribbons intertwine around the pole to form a design. A May Queen for the day is elected. She is selected for her beauty. In Britain she reinacts the marriage between the May Queen Goddess Cordelia, daughter of the sea god Lyr, and the May King Hâfgan, also known as Jack in the Green, the Green Man. Summer, a man in white smock decorated with garlands of flowers, ribbons, willow-wand wreathed with spring flowers and tied with ribbons, battles Winter, man dressed in fur cap,coat trimmed with fur, blackthorn stick. Summer wins; selecting the May King. (1, 4)