Maypole

What a maypole is

A maypole is a tall pole of wood, put up for a folk festival and usually danced around. Some are kept standing all year and brought out for the occasion; others are cut, raised and taken down again within days. The date varies. Many places raise the pole on the first of May, others at Whitsun, which is Pentecost, and some countries wait for Midsummer, the days between 20 and 26 June. It is found above all in Germanic Europe and in lands that region has shaped, and European communities in the Americas keep it too.

Origins and debate

Where the maypole came from is not known. Some researchers link it to the pagan religion practised across Germanic Europe in ancient times, before the region became Christian, and think the custom survived with its old meaning lost. One suggestion is that the pole stands for the world axis; another ties it to sacred trees and wooden pillars once honoured in those lands, such as Thor's Oak and the Irminsul. Others disagree. The historian Ronald Hutton says nothing supports the idea that the pole was understood that way. Folklore writers have argued over its meaning for centuries without settling the question.

Germany and Austria

In German-speaking places the pole is called a Maibaum, and in Germany and Austria it has been documented since the sixteenth century. In Baden and Swabia the trunk usually goes up on 1 May. In East Frisia and some neighbouring districts the raising happens the previous evening. Villages in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Austria hold a ceremony on the village green, with a procession, a brass band and onlookers, and the pole is lifted in the afternoon or evening with long poles, and these days sometimes a tractor or crane. In the Bavarian Alps the raising is a high point of the year. Some trunks are painted white and blue, the Bavarian colours, and many carry emblems of local trades.

Belgium's Meyboom

In Dutch-speaking Belgium the pole is the Meiboom or Meyboom. Hasselt raises its own on 30 April. Brussels and Leuven both hold to 9 August and must have the tree standing before five in the afternoon. The Brussels custom grew out of a quarrel between the two cities in 1213, when a brawl ended in Brussels winning. Almost a century later John II, Duke of Brabant, gave Brussels the lasting right to put up the Meyboom each year on that date and at that hour. Leuven claimed the tree in 1974 after a theft, and the two cities have kept up a friendly contest over whose Meyboom is the real one.

Courting poles

In Hungary the pole is a májusfa, and it belongs to courtship. A suitor cut a tall tree in secret, stripped the bark, left the leaves at the top, and set it in the garden of the young woman he hoped to marry, sometimes with his name carved on it. Families compared lengths the next morning and tried to guess the giver. On May's last Sunday the pole came down in the májusfa-kitáncolás, a dance at its end, and a wagon wheel called the máj-kerék was fixed to the top. In the Rhineland, unmarried men put small birch trees outside their sweethearts' doors.

How Maypole is kept

In the German-speaking areas a village chooses a trunk well ahead of time, decorates it and hides it in a barn, taking turns to guard it because young men from other villages try to steal it. The village that loses its pole must later treat the thieves to beer and a party to get it back. On the day, a procession with a brass band reaches the square, and the pole is lifted by hand, with ropes, or by machine. There is dancing, often a May dance in the evening, and the tree may stand all year or come down at the end of May.

When and where

The date depends on the place. Many poles go up on 1 May, some on the evening before, and others at Whitsun, which is Pentecost. In a few countries the custom waits for Midsummer, between 20 and 26 June. Hasselt raises its Meiboom on 30 April, while Brussels and Leuven hold to 9 August, before five in the afternoon. In Hungary the poles come down on May's last Sunday.

The custom belongs to Germanic Europe and to neighbouring lands that region has shaped. It is strongest in Germany and Austria, above all in the villages of the Bavarian Alps, and it is also kept in Belgium, Hungary and parts of Italy. Older records place it in the British Isles from the fourteenth century, and it travelled with European settlers to communities in the Americas.

What Maypole means

Several readings of the pole have been offered. Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, a Swedish scholar, described maypoles as plain signs that the warm season had returned, and the historian Ronald Hutton agrees. Some writers have proposed a phallic meaning, which Hutton rejects, noting that poles were not carved to look that way. The anthropologist Mircea Eliade placed the maypole alongside other rejoicing at summer's return and new growth, close to the May Day garlands of Britain and Ireland.

Days Maypole is marked

Questions people ask about Maypole

See also

Christmas treeA decorated evergreen or artificial tree placed indoors to mark the Christmas season.April Fools' DayAn annual day of lighthearted pranks, hoaxes and teasing kept on the first of AprilMaifestA traditional German celebration marking the arrival of spring with decorated maypolesChelsea Flower ShowA five-day May horticultural festival held in London by the Royal Horticultural Society

Good reading and sources

• Maypole on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.