How, exactly, does one go about making a maypole?
First of all, we had to get permission from the forest authorities to obtain a tree. Then, we cut down a tree, chopped off the bark and planed and sanded the wood. The next step was to decorate the pole. With the help of masking tape, we painted it white with a blue spiral. All in all, it was a mammoth task that took from June to October to complete. Just painting the pole took seven hours. It was a real community project—around 15 people were involved. Of course, the sheer size of the pole added to the work. Whereas most of the maypoles you see in gardens are three or so meters tall, ours is nine meters! Because it’s so big, we can see it from every window in the house and, of course, seeing a maypole brings good luck. When did you erect it? Was there a big celebration? We decided to erect the maypole on October 1 last year, which surprised a lot of people, as May 1 is the traditional date. But October 1 is the start of spring in Australia and it was our way of introducing a touch of
