Experience Excitement: The Wallachian Open Air Museum to Erect a Maypole
Join us at the Wallachian Museum in Rožnov to experience the creation of a traditional maypole. This exciting event kicks off on May 1, 2025, at 2 p.m. in the Wooden Town area. The celebration will feature fun activities like playing, dancing, and maypole construction led by the Wallachian Song and Dance Ensemble Radhošt’ from Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. Bring your family and friends to enjoy the festivities, and remember to hunt for the last cherry blossoms in the museum grounds. According to local tradition, every woman should be kissed under a cherry blossom tree on May 1 to ensure it blooms beautifully for the entire year.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, May Day celebrations were filled with music and dance. Almost every town or village would raise tall maypoles during these traditional festivities. These village maypoles were crafted by all the young people on the night before the feast of Saints Philip and James, which was celebrated on May 1. As part of the May Day festivities, a beautifully decorated green top of a spruce or pine tree was added to the uprooted tree trunk. The entire maypole was then ceremoniously raised in the village square, where it had to remain until after Christmas. In addition to the main maypole, young men would also create smaller maypoles adorned with ribbons for their beloved girls, usually placed beneath the windows of their homes. If multiple suitors were interested in the same girl, they would often compete by knocking each other’s maypoles down.
The practice of building maypoles, similar to the older custom of lighting bonfires (often associated with the burning of witches), is part of the ancient traditions from a time before Christianity. Their importance is most likely linked to the hidden symbolism of spring – representing growth and fertility, and perhaps serving as a gift or a sacrifice for absolution. Even though many of the magical elements have faded over time, May Day celebrations continue, especially during the “cutting of the maypole.” In several villages, ceremonial masks are worn. On the Christmas weekend, young men dressed in minimal clothing come, carrying a wooden axe and a saw, while accompanied by a keg of liquor, celebrating as they go, and playing with a wooden flint and a stick to entertain the lively crowd around them.
