Folk | The Magic of Maypole Ribbons

Maypoles are surely one of the more colourful and quirky of our folk traditions, but is there meaning and method in the May madness and what do those coloured ribbons symbolise?

One of the most British of sights is surely that of multicoloured ribbons, fluttering and being plaited around a Maypole under a blue late spring sky. Maypoles are imbued with a rich history of symbolism, as you might imagine. Folklorists argue about whether the phallic shape of the pole is in fact a symbol of male virility. We couldn’t possibly comment, but it would make sense if you believe, as many do, that the wreath of flowers that tops many poles is representative of female fertility. 

While the poles have been around for many centuries, the ribbons that adorn many a Maypole now were a later addition, some say they arrived post-Restoration, some time in the mid 18th-Century, others say it was the Victorians who added them. Whoever we have to thank, the ribbons are there not only to flutter prettily in the breeze but to be held by the dancers who go round and round the Maypole, plaiting the ribbons into pretty patterns as they go, until they are all neatly tied to the pole. They then repeat the steps in reverse to unwind them, which is said to symbolise the lengthening of the days, as the ribbons are freed and become longer again. 

Maypole ribbons come in many and various colours. Red and white is said to represent the ‘earthly’ and the ‘divine’, but various towns and villages choose their colours for various reasons. 

Some Maypoles use colours to represent the season and the harvest to come: gold for the sun, green for the leaves and vines and purple for grapes (and hopefully wine). As the dancers weave the ribbons together, it’s hoped they act as a prayer for all these elements to work together in harmony and produce a good crop. The dance itself is a symbol of the villagers working together as they will work later in the year to bring the harvest in. 

Other Maypoles are simply a celebration of spring, with green for growth, yellow for light and blues and reds for flowers. Pink and purple are said to symbolise feminine sweetness and also power. 

Our blog was inspired by our May issue ‘Modern Eccentrics’ feature on folk dancers by Johanna Derry Hall with photography by Jonathan Cherry. It starts on page 14 of the May ‘Folk’ issue and is in shops now. 

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Playlist | Folk

DJ: Frances Ambler
Image: Shutterstock

Our May issue celebrates the goodness of FOLK in all its forms… including folk music. Have a listen to our latest playlist here.
Or have a browse of all our playlists here. We publish one in each monthly issue.
Happy listening!

Make | Folk art enamelware

This enamel tumbler make is a simple and mindful way to spend an afternoon. You could even make a whole set for summer garden gatherings.

You will need:
Enamelware tumbler
Posca paint pens 3m tip, or enamel paint and brush
Clear spray varnish

1 Make sure your enamel surface is clean and dust free before starting. Your first motif is made up of four branch lines working upwards to the top of the tumbler.

2 Repeat this motif around the tumbler, leaving equal space between each of your motifs.

3 Add small bud shapes at the ends of the branches using other colours. We used ochre and pink, to complement the blue and give a nod to traditional folk art colour palettes.

4 Add your bottom border by drawing lines (around 5cm long) at the base. Along each of these lines add small teardrop-shaped ‘leaves’ that join at the same point along the line and mirror each other.

5 You can then use one of your alternative colours to add a small heart shape at the end of the blue line, creating a folk art floral.

6 Create your top border by drawing on curved lines that have curved teardrops working out from the main stem (a similar shape to paisley) and then use your alternative colour to add a collection of dots working outwards from these teardrops.

7 Add a final border of dots underneath your central branches, working around the whole tumbler. Leave to dry.

The instructions for this make were taken from our August issue feature, Paint Your Flagon, in which Becki Clark shows us how to paint the tumbler above, as well as a bowl and plate, all in a pretty folk design. You’ll find the project from page 106 of the issue, which is in shops now.

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British Summer | Weird Weekends

Only in Britain could posters go up all over the countryside for cheese-rolling contests, scarecrow competitions and lawnmower races, and no one turn a single hair. As a nation, we’ve proudly kept many of our stranger folk traditions, and added a few new ones along the way. 

If you’re looking for a day out with a difference this summer (or even some that comply with social distancing or that you could recreate at home), we’ve gathered a few ideas here. If you thought well-dressing and morris dancing was niche, prepare to be folking astounded. 

Toe Wrestling

The World Toe Wrestling Championships is held in Derbyshire every July. It began in 1976 when a few friends down the pub were lamenting Britain’s lack of athletics success. Forty-four years later, it’s going strong and is held in the Bentley Brook Inn in Fenny Bentley most years. Bare-footed participants lock big toes over a tiny wrestling arena and compete to wrangle the other’s foot to the side first. The rules are similar to arm wrestling and you start with right feet, then swap to left, then back again. Be warned - toe wrestling has regularly ended in injury and even broken toes, so go easy if you’re holding your own championships at home. Or perhaps try Thumb Wars instead. 

Bog Snorkelling

What better way to spend August Bank Holiday than snorkelling in a peat bog? Don’t answer that, but in case you were wondering, bog snorkelling is an event during which participants compete to do two lengths (60 yards each) of a water-filled trench cut through a peat bog, wearing snorkels and flippers. Swimming strokes may not be used - you may travel by means of flipper power alone. The Waen Rhydd peat bog near Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales has hosted the annual World Bog Snorkelling Championship since 1985. If you can’t make it there, perhaps get the paddling pool out at home. 

The Burryman’s Parade

At a loose end on the second Friday of August? Fancy seeing a grown man covered head to toe in sticky burrs paraded around for nine hours, his arms supported on poles decorated with flowers? Then head to South Queensferry on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, where the Burryman (a human covered in sticky flower and seed heads from the burdock plant is guided through town, stopping at inns and alehouses and given drinks of whisky (through a straw to avoid the burrs) at each. Folklore tells that bad luck will befall the town if the Burryman is not given whisky and money each year, in a tradition that’s thought to be thousands of years old. We’ll give the whisky a go and leave the burrs on the plant, we think - they’re a devil to get out of wool. 

Hallaton Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle-Kicking

Once described as ‘the bloodiest event in England’ this contest between the villages of Medbourne and Hallaton in Leicestershire is not for the faint-hearted. The competition, on Easter Monday, opens with a parade and large hare pie being blessed by a vicar, then cut up and thrown into the assembled crowd. There follows a race to get one of the barrels of beer (a bottle) over the other village’s boundary by any means, including kicking, throwing and rolling. It’s a terrifying free-for-all that makes a game of rugby look like a crochet circle in a nunnery. We aren’t sure this is one you’d want to try at home but there’s nothing to stop you making a rabbit pie and playing skittles with some beer bottles in the garden.

Burning of Bartle

If Guy Fawkes’ Night is not enough dangerous drunken revelry close to open flames for you in one calendar year, you might like to mark Burning Bartle weekend, held on the Saturday closest to St Bartholomew’s Day (24th August) in West Witton, North Yorkshire. Bartle is thought to have been a sheep stealer who was caught some centuries back (us British do enjoy a grudge as well as a weird festival, don’t we?). Today the village marks it by creating a huge effigy of Bartle, much like a ‘Guy’, complete with mask, sheep’s wool hair and beard and glowing eyes (just to terrify any tourists not in the know, we suppose), which is then propped against a dry stone wall and set on fire to much singing and shouting, before everyone decamps to the pub. It’s certainly a niche celebration but we all have a Bartle in our lives, somewhere. Make your own effigy, have a bonfire and sit and enjoy your grudge over a beer or two in the comfort of your own garden. Glowing eyes optional. 

In our July issue you’ll find the first in our new series, Modern Eccentrics, in which we celebrate people who are passionate about their pastimes and happily doing things a bit differently. This month, Julian Owen meets some thoroughly modern morris dancers.

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Music: Here comes the new folk

Although the vernacular music of England has always been around, many of us have been distracted by the pleasures of pop music and put off folk music by witnessing middle-aged men in pubs singing through their noses. Which is a shame as traditional folk songs, with songs covering a variety of subjects including yearning maidens, laments, farewells, daring lassies, murders, drowned sailors and blowing winds, offer much in terms of storytelling and social history.

Thankfully, contemporary musicians including Northumbrian sisters The Unthanks have hauled it back into our consciousness by recording old songs as well as writing their own. Many others have picked up the folk baton with sub- genres including ‘alt-folk’, ‘psych-folk’ and ‘nu-folk’ springing up.

Download our Spotify playlist for a selection of our favourite new folk, including Lady Maisery, Telling the Bees, Mad Magdelen, The Black Feathers and the Hare and the Moon.

FIND OUT MORE

Bright Young Folk is a compendium of interviews, reviews, directories and listings of traditional British folk music artists.

HAVE A GO 

If you fancy singing a few traditional ballads, join a folk choir, now growing in popularity. The Great Sea Choir in Bristol welcomes singers of all ages without an audition. The Morris Choir in London is fairly full but welcomes those who can sing, play a fiddle or bang a bodhran. 

Turn to page 91 of June's The Simple Things for a run-down of dance, craft and folk traditions through the year.

Words: Clare Gogerty
Illustration: Alice Patullo