Tag Archives: Maypole dancing

Swedish maypole

–Informant Info–
Nationality: United States of America
Age: 45
Occupation: Relationship Banker, Chase Bank
Residence: Laguna Niguel, CA
Date of Performance/Collection: 4/19/2021
Primary Language: English
Other Language(s): Swedish

Main Piece:

The following conversation is transcribed from a conversation between me (HS) and my co-worker/informant (SC).

HS: So what is one of your favorite customs that you and your family participated in while you were in Sweden?

SC: So in midsummer, we have this tradition that we do at home, lots of partying drinking, food, all that. But what makes it unique is that we do all of that around this thing called a maypole. It’s like this giant cross, pole, weird-looking thing that is covered with green vines, roses, flowers, and stuff. It’s massive and it has these circles on the pole, too. You can look it up it’s really cool. They also call it the Mayflower pole or midsummer pole. It’s basically celebrating the arrival of the summer season. Because Sweden is further north and it’s dark up until the summer the arrival of summer is a huge deal because it’s actually light out again.

Background:

My informant is a co-worker from my job. He is a Relationship Banker, and so we work a lot less closely than my other co-workers on the teller line. Regardless, he is a great guy and we enjoy a little office rivalry- he went to UCLA. Yuck. His parents immigrated to the United States from Sweden, but because he still has a lot of family living there, he visits a lot and in the process has brought back a lot of Swedish traditions to his family here in the United States.

Context:

We had gotten all of the pre-opening work done that we needed to get done, and it just so happened that our Branch Manager brought in some Dunkin Donuts to rally the morale of the troops. And so my co-worker and I sit there, grubbing some glazed donuts, going about the usual surface-level conversation. The typical weekend updates, customer complaints, all the good stuff. I decided to shift the conversation to talk about a tradition that my family and I had done the past weekend and asked if he had any that he did with his family. He was delighted to hear the question and started elaborating immediately.

Thoughts:

While I’m sure there are nuanced aspects of the Swedish maypole that weren’t elaborated upon in the transcription, the tradition that was described is popular throughout much of Western Europe, primarily in Germanic countries. It is important to note, though, that I think the festival would carry a lot more significance in further North countries, as my informant touched on, because of the lifestyle changes associated with the arrival of summer. The sun starts to come out much more frequently during the summer months, and the fact that the Swedish maypole festival marks that, in my opinion, carries special significance.

If you happen to be interested in learning a maypole dance and have an even number of participants that are also interested, please refer to:

Williams-Lundgren, Gertrude. A Simple Maypole Dance for Any Even Number, by Gertrude Williams-Lundgren. 1922.

May Day

Informant was a 19 year old female who was born in England and currently lives in Los Angeles. She lives in my hall, and I interviewed her.

Informant: There’s this festival that we have in England called May Day, and it’s the first of May. I don’t really know where it came from. We always have a holiday on the day so I always get a day off school. We do it to welcome spring, in a way. I’ve also heard that it’s to celebrate workers. But it’s not a workers’ day, per say. And I have seen people doing the Maypole dancing.

Collector: Pole dancing?

Informant: It’s not pole dancing as in pole dancing, like kids do it. I learned it at school, it’s taught at schools. At least it was when I was in primary school. Basically, it’s like a big wooden stick and it has like ribbons attached to it and people like dance around it.

Collector: Have you ever experienced that?

Informant: Yeah at like fairs I guess, on May day. There’s always a pole. I don’t really know the purpose of circling a pole to celebrate spring, but people do it. It’s very common. And there’s good food at the fairs too. Oh, and we crown a May Queen. That’s like a girl who does a bunch of things for May Day. Like she’s part of the parades and stuff. I’m not really involved in it, but I’ve heard about it. I also heard this story that in the past they used to kill the May Queen at the end, but like, I don’t know if that’s true or not.

The first thing I thought about this particular piece of folklore was how funny it was that a big tradition in England was called May Pole Dancing, but then my friend explained that it wasn’t really pole dancing, and that it is meant to celebrate spring. I think that’s really interesting, because it reminds me of my Swedish friend’s Midsummer ritual. I think it’s really cool how in both of the festivals there are wooden sticks (a cross in the Swedish culture and a pole in English culture) that little kids dance around to celebrate the arrival of a new season. It make some wonder what the origin of these traditions are, and if they all come from the same place.