Editing Maypole (section)

{{Short description|Tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals}}
{{About|the tall wooden pole and its dance}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}

[[File:Maypole Sweden.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Dancing around the midsummer pole, in [[Åmmeberg]], Sweden]]
A '''maypole''' is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European [[List of folk festivals|folk festivals]], around which a '''maypole dance''' often takes place.

The festivals may occur on [[May Day|1 May]] or [[Pentecost]] ([[Whitsun]]), although in some countries it is instead erected during [[Midsummer]] (20–26 June). In some cases, the maypole is a permanent feature that is only utilized during the festival, although in other cases it is erected specifically for the purpose before being taken down again.

Primarily found within the nations of [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] Europe and the neighboring areas which they have influenced, its origins remain unknown. It has often been speculated that the maypole originally had some importance in the [[Germanic paganism]] of [[Iron Age]] and early Medieval cultures and that the tradition survived [[Christianisation]], 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 it became less popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Today, the tradition is still observed in some parts of Europe and among European communities in the Americas.