Editing Maypole (section)

====United Kingdom====
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[[File:Maypole in Lustleigh in Spider's Web pattern.jpg|thumb |Maypole in [[Lustleigh]], [[Devon]], United Kingdom, in "spider's web" pattern]]
[[File: Barwick-in-Elmet Maypole.JPG|thumb|The maypole at [[Barwick-in-Elmet]], [[Yorkshire]], United Kingdom, which is lowered, refurbished, and raised every three years]]

In the [[United Kingdom]], the maypole was found primarily in [[England]] and in areas of the [[Scottish Lowlands]] and [[Wales]] which were under English influence. However, the earliest recorded evidence comes from a Welsh poem written by [[Gruffudd ab Adda|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.<ref name="Hutton, Ronald 1996 Page 233">{{harvnb|Hutton|1996|page=233}}</ref> 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 areas."<ref name="Hutton, Ronald 1996 Page 233" />

The practice became increasingly popular throughout the ensuing centuries, with the maypoles becoming "communal symbols" that brought the local community together – in some cases, poorer parishes would join up with neighboring ones in order to obtain and erect one, whilst in other cases, such as in [[Hertfordshire]] in 1602 and [[Warwickshire]] in 1639, people stole the poles of neighboring communities, leading to violence. In some cases the wood for the pole was obtained illegally, for instance in 1603, the earl of [[Huntingdon]] was angered when trees were removed from his estates for use as maypoles without his permission.<ref>{{harvnb|Hutton|1996|page=235}}</ref>

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. Under the reign of [[Edward VI]] in England and Wales, Protestant [[Anglicanism]] was declared to be the state religion, and under the [[Reformation]] many maypoles, such as the famous [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] maypole of London, were destroyed; however when [[Mary I of England|Mary I]] ascended the throne after Edward's death, she reinstated [[Roman Catholicism]] as the state faith, and the practice of maypoles was reinstated. Under later English monarchs, the practice was sporadic, being banned in certain areas, such as [[Doncaster]], [[Canterbury]], and [[Bristol]], but continuing in many others, according to the wishes of the local governors. In Scotland meanwhile, which at this time was still an independent state, Protestantism, in the form of [[Presbyterianism]], had taken a more powerful hold, and largely wiped out the practice of maypoles across the country.<ref>{{harvnb|Hutton|1996|page=236}}</ref>

Royal support contributed to the outlawing of maypole displays and dancing during the English [[Interregnum]]. The [[Long Parliament]]'s ordinance of 1644 described maypoles as "a Heathenish vanity, generally abused to [[superstition]] and wickedness."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tiersma.com/STATS/LORDSDAY.HTM |title=An Ordinance for the better observation of the Lords-Day |url-status=dead |date=8 April 1644 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070928195737/http://www.tiersma.com/STATS/LORDSDAY.HTM |archive-date=28 September 2007 |access-date=3 May 2007 }}</ref> The only recorded breach of the Long Parliament's prohibition was in 1655 in [[Henley-in-Arden]], where local officials stopped the erection of maypoles for traditional games. Scholars suspect but have no way to prove, that the lack of such records indicates official connivance in the flouting of the prohibition. However, they are certain that the prohibition turned maypole dancing into a symbol of resistance to the Long Parliament and to the republic that followed it.<ref name="Hutton">{{harvnb|Hutton|1996|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0WhvTFmRDCQC&pg=PA235 235]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=0WhvTFmRDCQC&pg=PA236 236]}}</ref>

The church of [[St Andrew Undershaft]] in the City of London is named after the maypole that was kept under its eaves and set up each spring until 1517 when student riots put an end to the custom. The maypole itself survived until 1547 when a [[Puritan]] mob seized and destroyed it as a "pagan idol".{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

[[File: Castle Bytham Maypole Montage.jpg|thumb|[[May Day]] celebrations, banned under the Commonwealth, were revived in 1660. The maypole at [[Castle Bytham]], Lincolnshire, was inscribed to commemorate the date when it was later cut in half for use as a ladder.]]

When the [[English Revolution|Restoration]] occurred in 1660, common people in [[London]], in particular, put up maypoles "at every crossway", according to [[John Aubrey]]. The largest was the [[Maypole in the Strand]], near the current [[St Mary-le-Strand]] church. The maypole there was the tallest by far, reaching over {{convert|130|ft|m}}, and it stood until being blown over by a high wind in 1672 when it was moved to Wanstead in Essex and served as a mount for the telescope of [[Isaac Newton|Sir Isaac Newton]].<ref name=Hutton /><ref name="Harvey">{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1967 |editor-last1=Harvey |editor-first1=Paul |editor-first2=Dorothy |editor-last2=Eagle |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00harvrich/page/528 528]–529 |chapter=Maypole in the Strand |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00harvrich |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>

In the countryside, may dances and maypoles appeared sporadically even during the Interregnum, but the practice was revived substantially after the Restoration. By the 19th century, the maypole had been subsumed into the symbology of "[[Merry England]]". The addition of intertwining ribbons seems to have been influenced by a combination of 19th-century theatrical fashion{{efn|Folklorist D. R. Rowe refers to the practice as starting on 28 November 1836 at the Victoria Theatre, London.<ref>'' The Times'' (London, England), 4 February 1995, p. 19.</ref> A contemporary theatre review refers to the performance on that night, in a melodrama, of 'a novel and excellent dance around the maypole'.<ref>'' The Times'' (London, England), 29 November 1836, p. 3</ref>}} and visionary individuals such as [[John Ruskin]] in the 19th century. However, the maypole remained an anti-religious symbol to some theologians, as shown by "[[The Two Babylons]]", an anti-Catholic conspiracist pamphlet that first appeared in 1853.

As revived, the dance is performed by pairs of boys and girls (or men and women) who stand alternately around the base of the pole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until they meet at the base. There are also more complex dances for set numbers of (practiced) dancers (the [[May Queen]] dancing troupes) involving complicated weaves and unweaves, but they are not well known today. However, such dances are performed every Mayday around the permanent Maypole at [[Offenham]], in [[Worcestershire]]. Temporary Maypoles are usually erected on [[village green]]s and events are often supervised by local [[Morris dance|Morris dancing]] groups.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In some regions, a somewhat different Maypole tradition existed: the carrying of highly decorated sticks. The sticks had hoops or cross-sticks or swags attached, covered with flowers, greenery, or artificial materials such as crepe paper. Children would take these hand-held poles to school on [[May Day]] morning and prizes may be awarded for the most impressive. This tradition is known as garlanding and was a central feature of Mayday celebrations in central and southern England until the mid-19th century. After that time, it began to be replaced by formally organized school-centered celebrations. It still occurs from place to place but is invariably a reinstatement of a local custom that had lapsed decades earlier.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In 1780, [[Kilmarnock]] Council, now in [[East Ayrshire]], paid Robert Fraser 2s. 6d. for "dressing a Maypole", one of the last recorded examples of the rural festival of the first of May in [[Scotland]], having been put down by Act of Parliament immediately after the [[Scottish Reformation|Reformation]] in 1560.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paterson |first=James |title=History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton |date=1863–1866 |publisher=J. Stillie |location=Edinburgh |page=[https://archive.org/details/historycounties00pategoog/page/n123 395] |author-link=James Paterson (journalist)}}</ref>

The tallest maypoles in Britain may be found in the villages of [[Nun Monkton]], [[North Yorkshire]] ({{convert|88|ft|5+1/4|in|m|0|disp=or|order=flip}}),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nun Monkton Conservation Area Character Appraisal|page=3 |url=https://www.harrogate.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/789/conservation_area_-_nun_monkton.pdf |publisher=Harrogate Borough Council |access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-date=19 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019231025/https://www.harrogate.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/789/conservation_area_-_nun_monkton.pdf}}</ref> [[Barwick-in-Elmet]], [[West Yorkshire]] ({{convert|86|ft|m|disp=or|order=flip}}),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.barwickinelmethistoricalsociety.com/maypl05.html |title=Maypole Raising 30th May 2005 |last=Smith |first=Harold |publisher=Barwick-in-Elmet Historical Society}}</ref> [[Welford-on-Avon]], [[Warwickshire]] ({{convert|65|ft|m|disp=or|order=flip}})<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 March 2023 |title=Welford-Upon-Avon Maypole |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/welford-upon-avon-maypole |access-date=13 March 2023}}</ref> and Paganhill, [[Gloucestershire]] (18 metres or 60 feet; although a taller, post-WWI 'Memorial Pole' of 29.5 m or 97 ft was previously erected in 1919, making it one of the tallest on record).<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 March 2023 |title=2004 Stroud 700th Anniversary Maypole |url=http://www.richardyt.com/2004.html |access-date=13 March 2023}}</ref>

[[Holywood, County Down|Holywood]] in [[County Down]], [[Northern Ireland]] has a maypole situated at the crossroads of Main Street and Shore Road/Church Road in the center of the town. It is the only Maypole in Ireland. Although the origin is uncertain, it is thought that the original maypole dates from the 18th century, when a Dutch ship ran aground offshore. The latest maypole was damaged and removed after a storm in February 2021. The remains were removed by [[Ards and North Down Borough Council]] and a replacement pole was ordered.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Beattie|first=Jilly|date=23 February 2021|title=Holywood's maypole severely damaged in high winds|url=https://www.BelfastLive|language=en}}</ref>