Flackley Ash Hotel runs rings around other hotels when it comes to having a relaxing Bank Holiday
Come and stay with us and forget about the “May Pole” and let’s concentrate on the original Maypole.
Maypole dancing is a tradition on May Day. It is believed to have started in Roman Britain around 2,000 years ago, when soldiers celebrated the arrival of spring by dancing around decorated trees thanking their goddess Flora.
Poet Jonathan Swift in his poem "A Maypole" (abridged) describes a Maypole as:
Deprived of root, and branch, and rind,
Yet flowers I bear of every kind:
And such is my prolific power,
They bloom in less than half an hour;
Yet standers-by may plainly see
They get no nourishment from me.
My head with giddiness goes round,
And yet I firmly stand my ground;
What is it ? - A dance is performed by pairs of boys and girls (or men and women) who stand alternately around the base of the maypole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until the merry-makers meet at the base.
The anthropologist, Micea Eliade thought that the Maypole was simply a part of the general rejoicing at the return of summer.
The Maypole has become a "communal symbol" that brings the local community together .
Come and stay with us and forget about the “May Pole” and let’s concentrate on the original Maypole.
Maypole dancing is a tradition on May Day. It is believed to have started in Roman Britain around 2,000 years ago, when soldiers celebrated the arrival of spring by dancing around decorated trees thanking their goddess Flora.
Poet Jonathan Swift in his poem "A Maypole" (abridged) describes a Maypole as:
Deprived of root, and branch, and rind,
Yet flowers I bear of every kind:
And such is my prolific power,
They bloom in less than half an hour;
Yet standers-by may plainly see
They get no nourishment from me.
My head with giddiness goes round,
And yet I firmly stand my ground;
What is it ? - A dance is performed by pairs of boys and girls (or men and women) who stand alternately around the base of the maypole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until the merry-makers meet at the base.
The anthropologist, Micea Eliade thought that the Maypole was simply a part of the general rejoicing at the return of summer.
The Maypole has become a "communal symbol" that brings the local community together .