Maypole

If you have not seen Maypole Dancing you should attempt to do so especially if you visit England
It is a spring ceremony long known to the English. It is performed on May weekend but especially so on (May Day May 1st).
The custom is to dance around a pole decorated with flowers and ribbon to symbolize a tree. Practiced for generations in countries such as Germany and England, the Maypole tradition dates back many centuries.

In England and in fact some parts of Lowland Scotland this ritual became increasingly popular throughout the centuries. Maypoles became known communal symbols that brought the local community together - in some cases, poorer parishes would join up with neighbouring ones in order to obtain and erect one.

Some say it was to celebrate the harvesting of a large crop.
It seems that it came from Pagan worship and in fact is celebrated on the morning after Beltane. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.

There has been instances of violence surrounding the ceremony, where neighbouring villages would tear down or steal Maypoles.

The art of decorating the Maypole is that the dancers are split into two teams with one team forming an inner crcle traveling clockwise and the remainder an outer circle traveling anti clockwise around the pole.