Palo de Mayo (English: Maypole; or ¡Mayo Ya!) is a type of Afro-Caribbean dance with sensual movements that forms part of the culture of several communities in the RAAS region in Nicaragua, as well as Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras and Bocas del Toro in Panama. It is also the name given to the month long May Day festival celebrated on the Caribbean coast. Both the festival and dance are a colorful mixture of European culture and Afro-Caribbean traditions which originated in Bluefields, Nicaragua in the 17th century.[1]
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Palo de Mayo, or Maypole, is a celebration welcoming rain, production, new life and [2] including 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. 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.[3] Wherever it came from it has long been a part of Nicaragua's culture and a mixture of European culture and Afro-Caribbean traditions. In Belize, 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 Nicaragua, moved to British Honduras (later to become Belize) after British cesession of the region.
The only difference in the Palo de Mayo of RAAS region in Nicaragua 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.[3] 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.[4] During the dance, custom made music was being played and that type of music is now referred to as a genre 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.[5]
Instruments in a Palo de Mayo Ensemble include tap drums, horn sections, electric guitar, electric bass, and expensive organ.[5]
Dimension Costena is a famous Palo de Mayo band that was very popular throughout Western Nicaragua in the 1980s.[5]
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