My Little Gnudren,
In the busy round of life Old Gnu hopes that one important thing hasn’t been escaped your notice. Once again it’s the time of year to dance round the Maypole! The origins of the Maypole are uncertain. Maypoles has become ‘tainted’ with Paganism because they existed before Christian times. Anything that exists pre-Christian times must be Pagan, mustn’t it? … even cups and saucers, and houses and wearing clothes. Wicked Pagan practices! There are those who regard the Maypole as a Phallic Symbol. Unexpectedly Mr. Sigmund Freud comes into this group. Some malicious people say he saw sexual symbols in everything and sexual urges behind every kind of behaviour. No, surely not!
According to Mr. Wakipedia there are some numbskull academics like Ronald Hutton, (currently Professor at Bristol) and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, (same nationality as the Swedish Chef in the Muppets and both now sadly deceased), who say that Maypoles were erected simply as “signs that the happy season of warmth and comfort had returned.” WHAT?! This will make a number of researchers redundant! Heartless academics!!
Academic discussions of origins aside, there are however many spiritual lessons to be drawn from the Maypole that can benefit us in life. A couple are worth mentioning. The normal practice of dancing round a Maypole reminds us of the importance of Dance in human life. Mrs. Gnu is cheering from heaven that Old Gnu has tumbled to this fact! The importance of Dance has been confirmed in Old Gnu’s mind by musicologists. Two of the Great cornerstones of Western Classical Music, – our Father in God and fourth member of the Trinity, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Ludwig van Beethoven (is “van” really his middle name?) – have been accused of significantly influenced by dance. (See Wilfred Mellers’, “Bach & the Dance of God”) (1) and also a number of essays on the internet about van Beethoven and Dance. Apparently, you can dance to the thunderous last movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony. Gnu has tried. But to succeed at this, keep a picture of a tornado or typhoon in your mind. Give it a try!
Sebastian and van, both born dancers.
So remember, dancing is important. If dancing round the Maypole is taken as a picture of life, then unfortunately dancing is a communal and not solitary activity. In Old Gnu’s mind this has been substantiated by the fact that he has occasionally got himself into a tangle during his working life – (he was a vicar once). The Maypole also teaches us that to avoid entanglement one must think quickly and take evasive action! (To Gnu’s slow mind this falls in the category of ‘multi-tasking’.) And close entanglement that can occur in Maypole Dance of Life is no situation a vicar ought to find himself in, especially if the other personage is a member of the PCC and a person of the opposite sex2. Evasive action must be taken to avoid entanglement with less competent dancers, and, heaven forbid, getting completely tangled up with one other dancer. Old Gnu would also warn you that he has witnessed Maypole Dancing where one poor victim dancer has become inextricably tangled against the Maypole, resembling someone tied to a stake ready for martyrdom by burning. Verily, this is a mirror image of what can happen in life. Yes, it is truly possible for things to end up like this! (You can see how Old Gnu has deviated from the truth of the Incarnation; he is not a risk taker.) Remember, compared with entanglement, collisions are a far better option. At least you can walk/ dance away with complete freedom (and bruises.)
Happy Maypole Dancing!
(1) As one reviewer of this work says: Mr. W. Mellors’ book deals with, “…the structure of Bach’s work explained in detail with accompanying psychological interpretation of its non-verbal yet intelligible meaning. It is a lot to read, not very concisely written and also highly subjective but one gets a sense of the richness and depth in the structure of Bach’s music.”
Quite!! Old Gnu is a peasant. He just enjoys the music.
(2) I have a feeling that a famous author, Soozan Watchit, wrote a novel –Shattering Shimmerings – about this sort of thing in higher places in the late 1980’s. But her storyline doesn’t include Maypoles. And she added a number of sequels which all as far as I know reflect the Maypole image of Life without mentioning it.
Vetus Pater Gnu
Academiae Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
II Mensis Maius MMXXV