Raising a maypole

[vera_j]

Yesterday evening was at a sign of "burning the witches" and raising a maypole. It is a long, long tradition but now limited mostly only to villages. There are not real witches burnt, there are big fires and people gather around and share drinks and celebrate a springtime and love. The most resilient ones stay overnight to guard the maypole because the boys from other villages always try to cut down other maypoles.
We were lucky this year, it was not raining and our maypole is intact. Our boys however cut down two other maypoles - and had to ruuuuuuuun!
Raising a tall tree trunk needs a team work and a good logistics:
1.A clean fir trunk with a wreath and ribbons still on the ground


2.The boys secure a wreath



2.3.5. The maypole goes up



a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/vjezkova/pic/0001984e/">


5.Evening celebrations

Comments

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Oh it is so nice to know that the old customs are still practiced some where in the world. Your village should be lucky this year since you kept your Maypole intact and got the Maypoles from 2 other villages. That is a very tall Maypole compared to ours, the British ones are only about 2 meters tall.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Thank you - we are aware of the traditions dying!
Well, this year we were quite sober about the hight of tree! Last year it was even taller but something went wrong during the raising work, it fell and the top broke off. It had to be fixed with nails.