Palo de Mayo

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Palo de Mayo (German maypole; also Spanish ¡M ayo Ya! ) Is a kind of Afro- Caribbean dance with sensual movements that is part of the culture of several communities in the Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe Sur in Nicaragua and in Belize , on the Islas de la Bahía of Honduras and the Bocas del Toro in Panama . It is also the name of the month-long May Festival that is celebrated on the Caribbean coast. Both the festival and the dance are an Afro-Nicaraguan tradition that originated in Bluefields, Nicaragua , in the 17th century .

history

Palo de Mayo is a celebration that welcomes rain, growth, and new life. Part of the celebration is a maypole . This is a tall wooden post adorned with several long, colored ribbons that are suspended from the top. There is no definitive answer to how the maypole came to Nicaragua. Historians continue to debate its origins. In Bluefields, the maypole was an elegant polka , with elegantly dressed women holding hands and clapping twice around a tree laden with fruit.

It is believed that the maypole was brought to Nicaragua by British settlers in the early 1830s. It is speculated that the ribbon dance, which is common in England, was modified to include elements of the Shango . This is a West African religion that has ghost obsession. As early as 1874, the Moravian missionary JE Lundberg wrote: "Today it is usually performed at night, by moonlight, in the midst of a pagan noise, and it is associated with great impropriety". According to Professor Hugo Sujo, the rituals varied. Children decorated the branches with mangoes, pineapples, and breadfruit, danced in a circle, and then ransacked the tree.

Many historians have pointed out that there are many differences in the celebrations and that the latter came from the Nicaraguan Creoles who inhabited the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Other historians believe that they came indirectly from Jamaica . Wherever it came from, Palo de Mayo has long been part of Nicaragua's Afro-Caribbean culture. In Belize , maypole weaving was practiced along with climbing coconut trees and competitions on slippery stakes. The reason for this is that most of the Creole population of the Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe Sur in Nicaragua moved to British Honduras (later Belize) after the British secession of the region in 1787.

The Sandinisites promoted the celebration as a tourist attraction. They supported local bands and dance groups led by Miss Lizzie. Miss Lizzie encouraged 70 year old women to dance the old style to teach the real thing to the youth. But by 1993 it had lost ground to the new style of the maypole, which older traditional dancers viewed as a "dirty display of suggestive dances".

Palo de Mayo music and dance

The only difference between the Palo de Mayo in Nicaragua from the one in Belize and the Bay Islands of Honduras is the dance that originated during a festival where women danced around the maypole and then two men came up to them in hope to accompany her, but the women refused her with their hand and said no. The music is sensual with intense rhythms and originated at the same time as the dance. Over the years, the dance that accompanies the music of the Palo de Mayo has become more and more sensual.

Special music was played during the dance. This type of music is now known as the Palo de Mayo genre. Palo de Mayo music is an electric makeover of Creole acoustic folk music known as mento . Palo de Mayo music retained much of the Mento style, including lyrics, melodies, and choral patterns, but it speeds up the tempo and replaces various instruments.

Palo de Mayo instruments

Historically, the combos played bongo drums made from logs, washboard bass, and even a donkey's jawbone as drums. Later calypso , soa or soul calypso and other influences were incorporated into the music. Among the instruments of Palo de Mayo ensembles include tap dance drums ( English tap drums ), brass section, electric guitar, electric bass and portable electric organ.

Palo de Mayo musicians

Tanto (Silvester Hodgson) is a character from the Barrio Beholden in the city of Bluefields (Nicaragua) who never wore shoes and who started to invent a new maypole song every year. His songs were about actual events. The most famous place for the maypole celebration was a place called Long Field.

Dimension Costena is a famous Palo de Mayo band that was very popular throughout western Nicaragua in the 1980s.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Prensa - Revista - Al rescate del Palo de mayo. In: www-ni.laprensa.com.ni. Archived from the original on September 14, 2007 ; accessed on May 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Palo de Mayo - Nicaragua Caribbean tradition. In: nicatour.net. Retrieved May 9, 2020 .
  3. ↑ John Otis. Report to The Washington Times, 1993. p. 319 Taylor, Deborah Robb. The Times & Life of Bluefields . 1st edition. Managua 2005- Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua
  4. ^ A b c Deborah Robb Taylor: The Times & Life of Bluefields . 1st edition. Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua, Managua 2005, p. 320 (English).
  5. ↑ a b Yadira Flores: Palo de Mayo: Bailando alrededor de un árbol (Spanish) . In: El Nuevo Diario . Archived from the original on July 4, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007. 
  6. ↑ Joshua Berman, Randall Wood: Moon Nicaragua . 3. Edition. Avalon Travel, 2008 (English).
  7. ^ A b c T. M. Scruggs: "Let's enjoy as Nicaraguans": The use of music in the construction of a Nicaraguan national consciousness . In: Ethnomusicology . No. 43.2 , 1999, p. 297-321 (English).

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