Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

The origin of the May Day as a day for celebration dates back to before the birth of Christ. And like many ancient festivals it too has a Pagan connection. For the Druids of the British Isles, May 1 was the second most important holiday for it was when the festival of Beltane held. May Day marked the fertile half of the year with Samhain, the holiday commemorated by the setting of an great bonfire, marking the dormant half of the year. Samhain was one of those ancient New Year rites performed throughout the world. And the fire was said to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun.

The Puritans frowned on May Day, so the day has never been celebrated with as much enthusiasm in the United States as in Great Britain. But the tradition of celebrating May Day by dancing and singing around a maypole, tied with colorful streamers or ribbons, survived as a part of the English tradition. The kids celebrating the day by moving back and forth around the pole with the the streamers, choosing of May queen, and hanging of May baskets on the doorknobs of folks — are all the leftovers of the old European traditions.

THE MAYPOLE OF MERRY MOUNT is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The people of Merry Mount celebrate the marriage of a youth and maiden. They dance around a maypole and are described as resembling forest creatures. Their festivities are interrupted by the arrival of John Endicott and his Puritan followers. Endicott orders for the people of Merrymount to be whipped. Stricken by the newlyweds, he spares them but orders they be put in more conservative clothing. He also orders the youth cut his hair in the “pumpkin shell” style in order to show the puritan’s strictness.

The story is an allegory for the social tension caused by the Puritans in early America. Endicott and his Puritan followers suppress freedom and individuality, a common theme for Hawthorne. Real joy, Hawthorne seems to be saying, arises spontaneously out of contrasts