So obviously I have to talk about the elephant in the room.. err… pole in the yard. Will erected a maypole for me a few weeks ago. If there is a greater token of love, I would be surprised. After he put up the maypole I quickly whipped up the topper with some ribbon. Then, naturally, we tested it out by doing some folk dancing around it. It was challenging! I would have danced for longer but everyone could only bear humoring me for so long and I think it isn’t the same solo…
Maiden voyage of the maypole
Wrapping is looking good!
At the party we got a dozen people to do it. Afterwards, at least one person said “it’s more fun than I expected” so I consider that high praise. Next year many folks suggested I send out the dance moves in advance to make sure everyone knows the moves. I didn’t want to give people homework… but if that’s what people want… I will gladly oblige. We had a bit of trouble with the full weave so there is improvement for next year to be had! It still looked pretty wrapping around the pole. I want to say that I did ask Will if this was the most pagan thing I’ve ever asked convinced him to do and he thought for a really long time before saying “maybe”. So that is promising.
I used this tutorial as the inspiration for our maypole, but I did things slightly differently. They had some great ideas including using galvanized steel pipe for the pole. Personally, I didn’t think we should fell any trees for our maypole, and galvanized steel means we can keep it year after year. What I didn’t like about the tutorial is that they used a single stake of rebar driven into the ground to hold up the 10′ pipe. That didn’t seem like that would handle 20 people dancing around it. So we changed that a bit! Unfortunately it involves some digging.
In order to accommodate digging and still have a 10′ maypole, I attached a 3′ length of pipe to the bottom of a 10′ pipe with a coupling. To the bottom of the 3′ pipe I attached a threaded floor flange fitting, to make it more difficult for the pipe to just pull out of the ground. Using a post hole digger, Will dug 3′ into the ground, then buried the pole, 3′ length side into the ground. Then we filled the hole back in (while also checking it was level) and Will tamped down the earth until we were satisfied it was buried. I also left the cap on the top of the 10′ pole so water wouldn’t get inside when it rained.
Will tamping down the earth.
Then I made the topper with 1.5″ ribbons – (made from recycled plastic and happily sourced from this Indigenous run shop) and two 8″ pine plaques from Michaels. We (the kids helped me) measured out 20 15′ lengths of ribbon and then I used the staple gun to attach them to the back of one of the plaques. I then sandwiched the ribbons with the second plaque and screwed them together. Finally, I attached the threaded floor flange fitting to the plaque. This allowed me to remove the ribbons when they were not in use so they didn’t get wet.
Stapling the ribbons on
Putting the second plaque on top to “sandwich the ribbons”
Attaching the floor flange.
For those who are wondering, the pole is still in the ground. We are debating how long it might stay there. If you want to see us in action… watch below! (What good friends I have!)
