They have constantly played a major part in pagan rituals to insure the fertility of women, cattle, and crops. According to tradition the cutting of the maypole was always accompanied by much joyous celebration with dancing and singing. Customarily the tree, after being stripped of its branches, is decorated with garlands of flowers and long ribbons which are attached to its crown. In celebration, ends of the ribbons are took in hand by young men and women alternatively who dance around the tree in opposite directions braiding the ribbons over and under while singing until the tree is wrapped in ribbons. The May rites are most common in the British Isles, Europe, Canada and the United States.
Various countries have different customs.
In parts of France, only girls dance around the pole while a boy wrapped in leaves, who is called Father May, is led around it. In Bavaria, the maypole is erected in front of a tavern, a man called Walber was wrapped in straw, and he dances around it. Feasting follow the singing and dancing. While in Scandinavia, it is tradition to set up many maypoles at each house. May. Currently the poles are burned at year's end at the autumn sabbat.