The Pole was an emblem of the Phallus, and with the serpent upon it, was
a representative of its divine wisdom and symbol of life. The serpent
upon the tree is the same in character, both are representative of the
tree of life. The story of Moses will well illustrate this, when he
erected in the wilderness this effigy, which stood as a sign of hope and
life, as the cross is used by the Catholics of the present day; the
cross then, as now, being simply an emblem of the Creator, used as a
token of resurrection or regeneration. Æsculapius, as the restorer of
health, has a rod or Phallus with a serpent entwined.
The Rev. M. Morris has shown that the raising of the May-pole is of
Phallic origin, the remains of a custom of India or Egypt, and is
typical of the fructifying powers of spring.
The May festival was carried on with great licentiousness by the Romans,
and was celebrated by nearly all peoples as the month consecrated to
Love. The May-day in England was the scene of riotous enjoyment, very
nearly approaching to the Roman Floralia. No wonder the Puritans looked
upon the May-pole as a relic of Paganism, and in their writings may be
gleaned much of the licentious character of the festival.
Philip Stubbes, a Puritan writer in the reign of Elizabeth, thus
describes a May-day in England: “Every parishe, towne, and village
assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and
younge even indifferently; and either goyng all together, or devidyng
themselves into companies, they go some to the woods and groves, some to
one place, some to another, where thei spend all the night in pleasant
pastymes; and in the mornyng they returne, bryngyng with them birch
bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.... But
their cheerest jewell thei bryng from thence is their Maie pole, whiche
thei bryng home with great veneration, as thus: thei have twentie or
fortie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweet nosegaie of flowers placed
on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie pole
(this stinckyng idoll rather), which is covered all over with flowers
and hearbes, bound rounde aboute with strynges from the top to the
bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with two or three
hundred men, women, and children, followyng it with great devotion. And
thus beyng reared up, with handekerchiefes and flagges streamyng on the
top, thei strawe the grounde aboute, binde greene boughes aboute it,
sett up sommer haules, bowers, and arbours hard by it. And then fall
thei to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the heathen
people did at the dedication of their idols, whereof this is a perfect
patterne, or rather the thyng itself.”
The ceremony was almost identical with the Roman festival, where the
Phallus was introduced with garlands. Both were attended with the same
licentiousness, for Stubbes gives a further account of the depravity
attending the festivities.