Maypole

Tree installation

In Germany, immediately before installation, a tree is often carried through the village to the central square or to a restaurant. This procession is usually accompanied by a brass band and many spectators. In the evening, set the tree.

While spectators have fun with sausages and beer, young people use long poles to try to bring the tree to an upright position. After completing the work usually begin dancing.

Depending on regional traditions, the May tree at the end of the month is often cleaned and carried to the warehouse. In some areas of Bavaria, it is left for a whole year.

The Mayan Tree Abduction

The abduction of the May tree on Walpurgis Night is a popular tradition associated with the May tree, which is preserved by young people. Maypole kidnapped by certain rules. Stolen tree taken to buy. The ransom can, for example, be the treat of all the inhabitants of the village that stole the tree. It is necessary to steal a Maypole on the night of May 1st .

According to the tradition in East Frisia, the abduction of the May tree can be prevented if the protection of the May tree in time touches the tree with the hand of the kidnappers. If the guard manages to distract, or the kidnappers have time to touch the shovel of the ground near the May tree three times, then a sign is attached to the trunk informing that the tree has been stolen. Then, immediately or the next day, it is taken out by the abductees and placed next to their own May tree.

The Maypole in Upper Austria is set three days before May 1 and vigilantly guarded. In this area, tradition allows only an established tree to be stolen. In this case, the tree can be dismantled only in the same way it was installed. Tractors and cranes for tree theft can be used only if they were used during its installation. Sometimes, for the protection of a May tree, a real alarm is established and the truck is blocked from approaching the May tree. Despite all the precautions, May trees are stolen every year. A kidnapped May tree is redeemed for a few barrels of beer, which the affected owners of the tree and his captors drink together.

In the Bavarian police, it is customary to turn a blind eye to this kind of crime against May trees. Turning to the police about the theft of a May tree will be mercilessly ridiculed.

The Austrian burgermeister Linz , Dr. Franz Dobush, became famous for refusing to buy the stolen May tree. On the night of May 2, 2008, the second May tree, installed on the busy main square of Linz to replace the stolen one, was also stolen.

Maypole and Love

In some parts of Germany, single men set up small May trees near the homes of unmarried women in the village. To do this, go to the forest, dig a sapling and plant it in front of the door or in front of the window of the person you want to pay homage to. However, “planting” is a great exaggeration: it is usually not a whole tree dug out and planted according to all the rules, but only a branch cut in the forest and stuck in the ground in front of the house that was contracted. The tree is chosen for a reason, but with meaning: a linden branch means a declaration of love, a rosebush branch praises the beauty of the chosen one; hawthorn branch glorifies its purity; and the elderberry branch, on the contrary, indicates its inconstancy. In other regions, for example, in the Rhineland, the May tree is set by the guys in front of their loved ones. It also relies May heart with the name of his girlfriend, which is cut out of cardboard or wood.

May tree stands until the first of June, and then put it takes it. If a girl likes a gentleman, then he is invited to dinner or give him a box of beer. In other places there is a tradition according to which the mother of the girl gives the guy a cake, the father - a box of beer, and the girl rewards him with a kiss.

In some regions , May trees are not put into the leap year by boys, but by girls.

The tradition of planting May trees is relatively young, but has ancient roots.

The Romans from April 28 to May 1 celebrated Florals - a festival in honor of the goddess of flowers and herbs Flora. On May 1 in the morning the Romans of both sexes went out into the field with music to collect green branches, with which they decorated the doors of their relatives and friends. This day was a Majuma festival in remembrance of Maya , the good goddess. On this holiday, the Romans poured each other and bathed in the Tiber , in which the messengers threw reeds stuffed in honor of Saturn (the god of time).

Among the Greeks, the First of May is a cheerful holiday, similar to the Russian Semik . At the end of the 19th century, the doors of their houses were decorated with flowers and branches of trees, and all of Greece celebrated the beginning of summer in the groves and gardens with popular entertainments.

On May 1, in Sweden and Westphalia , young cows that had not yet been harvested were hit three times with a branch of mountain ash, “so that the fruitful power of the thunder rod filled their breasts with milk”; in other areas, they use a nut rod (also a Gromovnik rod) when pasturing livestock. The following rite, well-known in Germany, agrees with this: in order for the cows to be rich in milk, the shepherd should, on the pasture of the flock on the pasture, put an ax tied with something red (the symbol of the Gromovnik hammer) before the barn threshold and overtake the cows .

In the Germanic tribes on the Trinity Day, or on May 1 ^[2] , this custom was observed in the old years: the “May Earl” was elected from among the young men; then they brought a cart loaded with green branches and wreaths from the forest; one “May wreath” was presented by the mayor and city council to the “May Earl”; the remaining bundles of greenery went to the section between the locals, but the largest part of them was given to monasteries and churches. Church towers were decorated with woody branches, and temple platforms covered with scraps of shrubs and wildflowers. Often, the May prince was given two wreaths and the right to choose from among the maidens the queen of the feast — the May Countess; on this last he laid one of his wreaths. There was also a custom to look for the “May Earl”: for this, an armed crowd of young men went to the forest and after a while returned from there along with the “May Earl”, who rode on horseback, entangled in flexible green branches, or in a cart harnessed to four horses and retired different “heals” ^[3] . This solemn train signified the return of the god of spring fertility ( Gromovnik ) from distant unknown countries where he spent the winter. In different places of Germany, on May Day 1 or Trinity Day, they continue to decorate houses with greenery until today, and put a “May tree” (Maibaum) on the central square. May tree most often stands birch. Villagers ride vatagami on horses with green branches in their hands or on hats, as they say in Germany and Denmark “to bring summer on horses to the village”. At the same time funny songs are sung, the May brothers are arranged.

In England in the 16th and 17th centuries, on the first day of May, in the early morning, boys and girls, accompanied by musicians, went to the nearest forest, slammed tree branches, cleaned them with flowers and, returning home, put these signs in May on the doors and windows of their dwellings. At the same time, by common efforts, they cut down a large tree and brought it to the city or village on several pairs of bulls; each bull was attached between the horns a bouquet of flowers; this “May tree” was placed in the middle of the square and indulged in games and dances around it. The British strengthened the symbolism of fertility, adding a disk (feminine) to the tree-pole (male element). The manager of the festival was called “the king of May”, and the one elected to him as a friend was the “Queen of May”. In the Middle Ages, on this day, girls washed themselves with dew, believing it would make them irresistible for the whole of the following year. Even on this holiday archery competitions were always held.

Czechs on the May holiday elect "kral" and "pod", and the week in which this folk festival takes place is known as "kralovo". Kraral and kralka are crowned with crowns and decorated with flowers. In the villages of Moravia, they put "Mai" or "T-shirts" - a high pole without bark and branches with a top decorated with ribbons and a wreath. The main goal is to protect the T-shirt from the guys from the neighboring villages, who are trying to cut it down or chop off the top and carry it to their village. Felled or stolen T-shirt was considered a great disgrace for the village. One of the options - small T-shirts. They are from the Middle Ages on May 1 put the girls in front of the house as a declaration of love. Also, the Czechs drive out cows with a broom or willow at dawn on May 1 (kravske hody - cow time) or at Trinity, wiping them with morning dew, and the same girls wash themselves with dew to become healthy and beautiful.

Slovenes, celebrating the return (height) of spring, designate one of the young men to represent Green Yegor (Yuri) and tie him with birch branches. Felled trees that decorate houses at this time are called Miami.

In Lithuania, on May 1, a green tree hung on a meadow, hung with colorful ribbons; the rural youth, having chosen from their midst the most beautiful girl, put a wreath on her head, wrapped it around the camp with birch branches, and with a cheerful crowd accompanied her to the place of the gulbishcha. There, near the May tree, dances and songs began, with a constantly repeated cry: O Maya, O Maya!

In Spain, they dress up a beautiful settlement in a white dress and crown it with flowers, put it on the throne, and the young friends around her make a collection for Maya. In the Pyrenees, on May 1, they looked for the tallest tree: spruce, pine or poplar, chopped off all the branches on it, drove several stakes into the trunk and left it on the vine until June 23; on the eve of Ivanov's day , after the blessing given by the priest, they piled the tree down and betrayed it to be burned.

The Poles, Belarusians, Rusyns, Kashubians and Czechs who have preserved the ancient Slavic names of the remaining months, the fifth month is now called "May." This not only reflects the influence of Byzantium on Russians and Rusyns and Latin and German - on Vends, Kashubians, Poles and Czechs ^[4] , or the presence of the May 1 holiday this month, which caused the renaming of Belarusians under Soviet power, but probably says that the word "May" among the Slavs meant a goddess (of Earth?) or a holiday in honor of her. In Polish, “may” also means greens, a green branch of a birch tree, “umaić głowę” means “crowning your head with a wreath”. "Maj, Majówki" - May celebrations, May Day celebrations, the spring festival in its first bloom. The ancient inhabitants, says L. Golembovsky, had the goddess Maya, whom they paid homage on the first day of this month. Even under King Sigismund Augustus, in some districts, well-dressed young women converged on the meadow and, clutching their hands, formed a round dance and with delightful dances they voiced praise in the spring ^[5] .

In its high form today, with a green top and a wreath, the May tree has been known since the 16th century. In the XIX century, it appeared as a symbol of local government in the villages of Bavaria. Many traditions appeared associated with the May tree, which varied considerably from village to village.

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  May tree in Waldzassena in Bavaria

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  Decorated birch. Germany. 05/01/2010

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  May tree in Galicia . Spain, 2009

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  May tree in eastern France. 2007

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  Birch, as Maypole in Cologne . 05.05.2011

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  Dance around the "maypole" in England. 2005

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  The rite of "May tree" at the Trinity in the Netherlands . 2005

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  Trinity birch in Russia. XIX century.

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  Holiday birch in the town of Swidnik in Slovakia. 13.05.2006

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  Pillar of the summer solstice in Sweden. 06/21/2008

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  Summer Solstice Festival in Sweden. June 2005

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  Maypole or “ Ivanov pillar” in Finland. 06.25.2004

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  May tree in the Perigord House ( Dordogne , France )

• Kupala tree
• Christmas tree
• Plague pillar
• Royal rites
• "May Tree" - folklore festival
• Maya (Pleiad)
• Troitsin day
• Yeremey-zapryagalnik

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• Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Saure Wochen - Frohe Feste . München 1985. (German)

• Zelenin DK. Totems-trees in the tales and rites of European nations. Maypole
• Trinity Birch // REM
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• Beitrag bei arte, auch als Video (inaccessible link) (it.)
• Beltane (Mayan Tree Customs) (German)
• História stavania májov (words.)
• Svatodušní svátky - Letnice. (Czech)