For much of her childhood in White Salmon, Washington, Tristin Roy marked the first of May by clutching a long ribbon and twirling it around a maypole with the rest of her ballet class until an ...

While I had vaguely heard of the Maypole dance over the years, the first one I experienced in person involved schoolchildren in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. My son had enrolled as a fifth grader in ...

Her face would light up every time she told me the maypole story. It was an anchor of joy from my mother’s childhood. Her descriptions were so vivid that I could see the multicolored ribbons and each ...

I wish I had danced around a Maypole with my mother. I’m not sure why it didn’t happen at least once in her 101 years. At the very least, I wish I had told her I wanted to. “Mom let’s celebrate my ...

The annual weekend-long celebration of ancient May Day traditions left attendees refreshed and rejuvenated — and exhausted from a weekend of running around in the sun and dancing around a fire at ...

The author with friends at a Beltane celebration, featuring a Maypole (Photo: Emily Guenther) Beltane is a holiday celebrated by many Earth-based spiritual traditions. It falls on May 1st and is ...