Let’s go to the park!

_Elsa_

Tiffi tells Kimmy that they can do the maypole dance but first they need to sit a bit and rest their feet. Blossom knows all about May Day and the maypole, so she shares it with the girls as they rest.

"During May Day festivities, a maypole is traditionally at the centre of the celebration. A long, thin pole is erected, and intertwining ribbons are attached, whereby the maypole dance is performed. This is a form of folk dance from Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden that may have originated from Germanic pagan rituals centred around fertility and the turn of spring.

The participants move in concentric circles about the garland-festooned pole, each holding a coloured ribbon, and work together to plait the fabric, unravelling it by performing the dance in reverse. The maypole is the focal point for a carefully choreographed ceremony that creates kaleidoscopic patterns of overlapping multi-coloured ribbons. It is an ancient custom still performed at spring fetes and village greens yearly.

What the maypole purportedly represents is a contentious issue. It is said to be representative of the axis mundi — or world centre — where the sky and the earth connect, and four cardinal directions meet. It has also been interpreted as a phallic symbol because of pagan fertility rites. As the dancers take two separate ribbons and plait them into a new element, the process of two making three is said to be symbolic of sexual union and the creation of offspring. It is also likely that the celebrations around the maypole originate from the Germanic worshipping of sacred trees." (Info from here)

The girls watch the young children playing in the park. Kimmy knows that Tiffi can’t sit too long with all that energy. She suggests that she goes over to play with the children.  

“Tiffi, those children look like they are your age, around 6 years old,” Kimmy says. “Why don’t you go play with them while Jenny and I rest our feet a bit.”

And off Tiffi goes to play with them!

Let's continue with the next part of our story – Fatigue sets in

Start at the beginning – What is May Day?