settings
Keeping Up Appearances vocabulary
74 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
help & settings
[x]
-
maypole
-
► definition
Definition:a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place.[...]The symbolism of the maypole has been continuously debated by folklorists for centuries, although no definitive answer has been found. Some scholars classify maypoles as symbols of the world axis (axis mundi). The fact that they were found primarily in areas of Germanic Europe, where, prior to Christianisation, Germanic paganism was followed in various forms, has led to speculation by some that the maypoles were in some way a relic of a Germanic pagan tradition.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
photo: by Richard2s at English Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
► uses
Uses:
[shortly after arriving at "Honeysuckle Cottage"]
Hyacinth: We must get a maypole, Richard. Apparently that's how country folk amuse themselves.BBC. Keeping Up Appearances, season 4: Country Retreat (1993)
---
Geilie began to spin, twirling round and round, hair whipping in the wind, hand gracefully overhead like a maypole dancer’s. I watched her in stunned disbelief.
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
---
It had been a country village, and had kept its old mayor’s office sunburned and brown, in front of which, in the place of maypoles and streamers, three tall pear trees were, as though for some civic and local festival, gallantly beflagged with white satin.
Marcel Proust. In Search of Lost Time [volume 3]
help with search