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<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Hi, Worship & Music folks --</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Several sites suggest that the pole traces back
to Norse Paganism in which the universe was represented as a world tree and
sacred trees were identified. The pole, then, represented the world axis,
axis mundi. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Thomas Hobbes is credited with tracing the
tradition back to Rome and Priapis, with related phallic associations, but that
interpretation may be faulty.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Wikipedia offers an extensive explanation of the
Maypole tradition that includes what Caroline Putnam probably referred
to.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>In Britain, the Maypole tradition was discouraged
as pagan by Protestants, but the Catholic royalty promoted it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Move now to the colonies. The Protestant
colonists also banned the maypole. However, in 1628, a group of indentured
servants broke free to establish their own colony and set up a maypole to
celebrate their independence. The section from Wikipedia is copied
below.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>I'm thinking that the ideas of the "world tree"
and the maypole dance as a celebration of freedom can inform our own
incorporation of the maypole into our worship practices. I also read about
"garlanding" -- a practice in which individuals decorate small poles (branches,
dowels) with ribbons, flowers, etc. That might be an interesting art
project or BRIDGES large group activity. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri>Martha</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>
<P>While not celebrated among the general public in the <A title="United States"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">United States</A> today, a
Maypole Dance nearly identical to that celebrated in the <A
title="United Kingdom"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">United Kingdom</A> is an
important part of <A title="May Day"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day">May Day</A> celebrations in local
schools and communities .<SUP id=cite_ref-21 class=reference><A
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole#cite_note-21">[21]</A></SUP> Often
the Maypole dance will be accompanied by other dances as part of a presentation
to the public.</P>
<P>The earliest use of the Maypole in America occurred in 1628, where William
Bradford, governor of <A title="Plymouth Colony"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony">New Plymouth</A>, wrote of
an incident where a number of servants, together with the aid of an agent, broke
free from their <A
title="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant
CTRL + Click to follow link"
class=mw-redirect
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant">indentured service</A>
to create their own colony, setting up a maypole in the center of the
settlement, and behaving in such a way as to receive the scorn and disapproval
of the nearby colonies, as well as an official officer of the king, bearing
patent for the state of <A title=Massachusetts
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts">Massachusetts</A>. Bradford
writes:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>"They also set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing about it many days
togaether, inviting the Indean women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking
togither, (like so many <A title=Fairy
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy">fairies</A>, or <A title=Erinyes
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erinyes">furies</A> rather,) and worse
practises. As if they had anew revived & celebrated the feasts of the
Roman Goddess <A title="Flora (deity)"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_%28deity%29">Flora</A>, or the
beasly practieses of the madd <A title=Bacchanalia
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchanalia">Bacchinalians</A>. Morton
likwise (to shew his poetrie) composed sundry rimes & verses, some tending
to lasciviousnes, and others to the detraction & scandall of some persons,
which he affixed to this idle or idoll May-polle. They changed also the name
of their place, and instead of calling it Mounte Wollaston, they call it
Merie-mounte, as if this joylity would have lasted ever. But this continued
not long, for after Morton was sent for England, shortly after came over that
worthy gentleman, Mr. <A title="John Endecott"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Endecott">John Indecott</A>, who
brought a patent under the broad seall, for the governmente of the
Massachusets, who visiting those parts caused the May-polle to be cutt downe,
and rebuked them for their profannes, and admonished them to looke ther should
be better walking; so they now, or others, changed the name of their place
againe, and called it Mounte-Dagon."<SUP id=cite_ref-22 class=reference><A
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole#cite_note-22">[22]</A></SUP></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Governor Bradford's censure of the Maypole tradition played a central role in
<A title="Nathaniel Hawthorne"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne">Nathaniel
Hawthorne</A>'s fictional story "<A title="The Maypole of Merry Mount"
class=mw-redirect
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maypole_of_Merry_Mount">The Maypole of
Merry Mount</A>", 1837.</P>
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