Five people were injured, some seriously, after a Maypole erected to celebrate ancient customs relating to May Day fell on the crowd of spectators.
Two seriously injured people were air-lifted to hospital and a further three taken by ambulance with less serious injuries after a Maypole collapsed in the small German town of Rheurdt, North Rhine-Westphalia, on Thursday.
Those injured were between the ages of 35 and 72 but none were in life-threatening condition, the Rheinische Post reports.
Part of a set of glass lantern slides of May Queen images believed to be from the early 1900s, possibly in the Cheshire area / Social History Archive / Unsplash
Maypoles — ribbon-wound trees adorned with a garland of flowers are an ancient European custom relating to the transition from winter to the season of growth, and may essentially amount to a fertility symbol ahead of the agricultural year. In Germany, Maypoles on May Day are traditionally erected before spectators — often by hand — as part of the celebrations.
Several reports in German media state the maypole in Rheurdt may have fallen during the erection.
The Rheurdt maypole belongs to the St. Martinus-Quirinus Brotherhood, a local rural fraternity who are giving a shooting festival this weekend to celebrate their 475th anniversary. These these festivities will now be cancelled in light of the accident has not yet been decided, it is stated.
