Palo de Mayo (; or ¡M ayo Ya!) is a type of

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

dance with sensual movements that forms part of the culture of several communities in the RAAS region in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, as well as

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

, the Bay Islands of Honduras and Bocas del Toro in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. It is also the name given to the month-long

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

festival celebrated on the Caribbean coast. Both the festival and dance are an Afro-Nicaraguan tradition which originated in

Bluefields Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Reg ...

in the 17th century.

History

Palo de Mayo, or

Maypole A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European List of folk festivals, folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place. The festivals may occur on May Day, 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some co ...

, is a celebration welcoming rain, production, and new life that includes a maypole, which is a tall wooden pole, decorated with several long, colored ribbons suspended from the top. There is no definite answer as to how it got to Nicaragua. Historians continue to debate its origins. Bluefields people pretty much all agree, "May Pole is not what it used to be." An elegant polka in which smartly dressed women held hands and two-slapped around a fruit laden tree. It was probably brought to Nicaragua in the early 1830s by British settlers and the ribbon pole dance common to England was modified, according to speculations, incorporating elements of Shango, a West African religion, featuring spirit possession. Certainly already in 1874, Moravian missionary J.E. Lundberg wrote: "It is now generally conducted at night, by moonlight, amidst a heathenish noise and it has become connected with great impropriety of conduct." Professor Hugo Sujo says the rituals varied. Children would adorn branches with mangoes, pineapples and breadfruit; dance in a circle and then plunder the tree. Many historians point out that there are many differences in the celebration and that it came from the Nicaraguan Creoles that inhabited Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, other historians believe it came indirectly from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. Wherever it came from it has long been a part of Nicaragua's Afro-Caribbean culture. In

, plaiting of the maypole along with coconut tree climbing and greasy pole competitions. This is because most of the Creole population of the RAAS region in

, moved to

British Honduras British Honduras was a Crown colony on the east coast of Central America — specifically located on the southern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony — renamed Belize from June 1973

(later to become Belize) after

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

secession of the region in 1787. The Sandinisitas promoted the event as a tourist attraction supporting local bands and dance groups, under Miss Lizzie's leadership. Miss Lizzie involved 70-year-old women to dance the old style, to teach the youth the real thing. But by 1993 she'd lost ground to the new style of May Pole which was seen by older traditional dancers as "a dirty display of dirty dancing"

Palo de Mayo music and dance

The only difference in the Palo de Mayo of RAAS region in

from Belize, and the Bay Islands of Honduras, is the dance originated during a festival in which the women danced around the maypole and then had 2 men approach them in hopes of accompanying them but the women rejected them with their hands telling them no. The music is sensual with intense rhythms and originated during the same time as the dance. As the years have progressed, the dance accompanying Palo de Mayo music has become more and more sensual. During the dance, custom made music was being played and that type of music is now referred to as a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

called Palo de Mayo. Palo de Mayo music is an electric reworking of Creole acoustic folk music called a mento. Palo de Mayo music retains a lot of the mento style including lyrics, melodies, and choral patterns, but speeds up the tempo and replaces different instruments.T M Scruggs. ""Let's enjoy as Nicaraguans": The use of music in the construction of a Nicaraguan national consciousness. " Ethnomusicology 43.2 (1999): 297-321. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 11 May. 2010.

Palo de Mayo Instruments

Historically, Combos played bongo drums made of tree trunks, washboard bass and even the jawbone of a donkey for percussion. Later calypso, soa or soul calypso and other influences were incorporated into the music. Instruments in a Palo de Mayo Ensemble include tap drums, horn sections, electric guitar, electric bass, and portable electric organ .

Palo de Mayo musicians

Tanto (Silvester Hodgson), a Beholden barrio character who never wore shoes and started making up a new May Pole song every year. The most famous spot for the May Pole Celebration was a place called Long Field.Mr. Percy Spence in Taylor, Deborah Robb. ''The Times & Life of Bluefields''. st ed. Managua: Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua, 2005. Dimension Costena is a famous Palo de Mayo band that was very popular throughout Western Nicaragua in the 1980s.

References

External links

The Palo de Mayo festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palo De Mayo Culture of Nicaragua Culture of Belize Music of Nicaragua