Editing Maypole (section)

===America===

====Canada====
[[File:Friends and Family. Maypole Dance BAnQ P48S1P00207.jpg|thumb|Maypole dance during [[Victoria Day]] in [[Quebec]], Canada, 24 May 1934]]

In Canada, maypole dances are sometimes done as part of [[Victoria Day]] celebrations which occur in May.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca/EN/main/about/photo-galleries/special-events/victoria-day-maypole-dancers.html |title=Victoria Day Maypole Dancers |website=Burnaby Village Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912023030/http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca/EN/main/about/photo-galleries/special-events/victoria-day-maypole-dancers.html |archive-date=12 September 2014 |access-date=11 September 2014}}</ref> In New Westminster, British Columbia, dancing around the maypole and May Day celebrations have been held for 149 years.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newwestcity.ca/calendar-of-events/events/5548.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525233701/https://www.newwestcity.ca/calendar-of-events/events/5548.php |archive-date=25 May 2019 |title=New Westminster's 149th May Day Celebration |publisher=City of New Westminster}}</ref>

====United States====
[[File:New York RenFaire 2004 maypole.JPG|thumb|A maypole at a Renaissance faire in [[Tuxedo Park, New York|Tuxedo Park]], United States]]
[[File:Maypole in Brentwood, California.JPG|thumb|The [[Brentwood, Los Angeles|Brentwood]] Maypole tradition originated when [[Archer School for Girls]] was still the [[Order of the Eastern Star|Eastern Star Home]].]]

While not celebrated among the general public in the [[United States]] today, a Maypole dance nearly identical to that celebrated in the [[United Kingdom]] is an important part of [[May Day]] celebrations in local schools and communities.<ref>{{Cite web | first = Rick | last = Smith | title = A Decade of Maypole Dancing | url = http://b.smat.us/maypole/ | year = 2002}}</ref> Often the Maypole dance will be accompanied by other dances as part of a presentation to the public.

The earliest use of the Maypole in America occurred in 1628, when William Bradford, governor of [[Plymouth Colony|New Plymouth]], wrote of an incident where a number of servants, together with the aid of an agent, broke free from their [[indentured servant|indentured service]] to create their own colony, setting up a maypole in the center of the settlement, and behaving in such a way as to receive the scorn and disapproval of the nearby colonies, as well as an officer of the king, bearing patent for the state of [[Massachusetts]]. Bradford writes:

<blockquote>
They also set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing about it many days together, inviting the Indian women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking together, (like so many [[fairy|fairies]], or [[Erinyes|furies]] rather,) and worse practices. As if they had a new revived & celebrated the feasts of the Roman Goddess [[Flora (deity)|Flora]], or the beastly practices of the madd [[Bacchanalia|Bacchinalians]]. Morton likewise (to shew his poetry) composed sundry rimes & verses, some tending to lasciviousness, and others to the detraction & scandal of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idol May-pole. They changed also the name of their place, and instead of calling it Mount Wollaston, they call it Merie-mounted, as if this jollity would have lasted ever. But this continued not long, for after Morton was sent for England, shortly after came over that worthy gentleman, Mr. [[John Endecott|John Indecott]], who brought a patent under the broad seal, for the government of Massachusetts, who visiting those parts caused the May-pole to be cutt downe, and rebuked them for their profanes, and admonished them to look there should be better walking; so they now, or others, changed the name of their place again, and called it Mount-Dagon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bradford |first=William |title=History of Plymouth Plantation |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofplymout00inbrad |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1856 |location=Boston |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofplymout00inbrad/page/n518 237]–238}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Governor Bradford's censure of the Maypole tradition played a central role in [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s fictional story "[[The Maypole of Merry Mount]]", published in 1837.

New York City's Central Park also has a rich history of the Maypole, with the practice being particularly popular in the early 20th century. Photographs from the early to mid 1900s depict children participating in Maypole dances, which suggest that dances and tradition like these were common in the park at that time.<ref>{{Citation |title=Maypole dance, Central Park, New York |date=1905-01-01 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2016799049/ |access-date=2024-12-20 |publisher=Detroit Publishing Co |language=en}}</ref> Maypoles can also be seen in artwork from this time. Artist Maurice Prendergast depicted children dancing around the Maypole in his 1901 watercolor painting "May Day, Central Park."<ref>{{Cite web |title=May Day, Central Park {{!}} Cleveland Museum of Art |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.17 |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=www.clevelandart.org |language=en-US}}</ref> However, by the mid-20th century the popularity of May Day celebrations in Central Park had declined and the focus of May Day shifted towards political demonstrations. It has become an annual tradition for workers from different backgrounds and occupations to march from Washington Square Park to Foley Square on May 1st to protest in support of workers' rights. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-01 |title=Officials, workers rally on May Day in New York City calling for stronger labor protections |url=https://abc7ny.com/may-day-unions-rally-protest/13201050/ |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=ABC7 New York |language=en}}</ref>