Four of us from Neskaya went down to the Abbie Greenleaf Library in Franconia for the annual winding of the Maypole.\u00a0 Sponsored by the library, each year a group of little girls get all dressed up in spring colors and come to wind the maypole.\u00a0 The pole and ribbons were made by Christy and Ched Shaw-Doran.\u00a0 It was COLD.\u00a0 It was cloudy with a chilly wind.\u00a0 I was wearing a black coat over my festive clothing.\u00a0 Little girls were arriving as we put the pole up.\u00a0 Then we gathered in a circle and practiced a \u201cgrand right-and-left.\u201d Over & over. Kayla arrived with the music \u2014 a specially made CD on a boom box, no live music this year \u2014 and we practiced again.\u00a0 Then everybody who would be winding one of the eighteen ribbons went in to get a wreath of flowers put on her head.\u00a0 We untied the ribbons which had been tied to the pole.\u00a0 In past years the wind tangled the ribbons so it was a lot of work getting them straightened out.\u00a0 At the stroke of eleven we began.\u00a0 It went very well.\u00a0 The weaving looked beautiful, it was so even.\u00a0 After it was wound, people went to the picnic table for cookies and soft drinks.\u00a0 I showed the few that were left the steps of \u201cGabi Gabi\u201d a dance from Africa and we started the music.\u00a0 When people saw how easy it was they joined and we soon had a big circle.\u00a0 Then we did Maize, a dance for summer.\u00a0 A few worms had come up, so we did the \u201cworm dance\u201d Omal Garassari, a dance with lots of stamping. Worms always come up when we dance.\u00a0 One year there were so many they were in danger of being stepped on.\u00a0 One young boy made it his business to pick the worms up and carry them to a safer place.\u00a0 Then we unwound the maypole as a group.\u00a0 It was relatively easy because we\u2019d wound it so evenly.\u00a0 We had tried it another year, but everybody got really frustrated and we had to quit.\u00a0 Kayla put on the music of Dudulas for the unwinding.\u00a0 Everybody agreed it was the best year yet!<\/p>\n
For pictures of the winding of the maypole in 2008<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four of us from Neskaya went down to the Abbie Greenleaf Library in Franconia for the annual winding of the Maypole.\u00a0 Sponsored by the library, each year a group of little girls get all dressed up in spring colors and … Continue reading