Maypole

May Day - the day of love

May 1st is a time of love. In smaller towns and villages people will put up a Maypole, in the evening they'll light bonfires and young couples will dance and jump over the flames.

In many countries, maypoles are erected, which in Czechia take the form of a whole tree, stripped of branches and bark except for the very top, which is decorated with fabric or crepe paper ribbons with a decorated wreath hanging from it.

In the past the suitors (nápadník) would put a maypole in the garden of the girl they liked. The cutting and wood delivery had to be done in secret, under the cover of night, so that the lady in question (dotyčná) would not suspect anything. This was a common form of rural (vesnické) flirting. The lovers were always assisted by a (often drunken) team of similar boys. If two boys liked the same girl, after one team had erected the maypole, the other would secretly take it away and dig his own in its place.

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