De Colores ..Dance around your Maypole

Yes it is the first of May and my mind immediately thought of the Bee Gee's song.  But it is only days away from when I leave so it is a May Day and traditionally May Day had a May Pole.  I wish I could decorate the flagpole somehow to dance around this.  Just a thought.  All the colours of the rainbow.  De Colores.

When I was a little girl in Stanthorpe in Queensland,   I learned to do the May Pole Dance at the Presbyterian Church.  In hindsight this is hilarious.  I remember the beautiful coloured ribbons and as we danced around and in and out this action plaited the ribbons that were hanging in our hands. I remember being in total amazement at this.  So much fun and so PAGAN.  This is the part that amuses me most now.  Wonder who it was that was our teacher?  She slipped that one in past perhaps.

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations. As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.

Image by  Mezza - The flagpole on the hill near my house in Urunga Australia