KÜHBACH, Germany — Beer in hand and lederhosen and dirndls on display, villagers gathered Friday as a brass band played Bavarian tunes and the young men of the Kühbacher Burschen club pushed a towering, freshly painted maypole into the sky. The Associated Press was on hand to witness the centuries-old custom, deeply rooted in Bavarian folklore and performed here every three years.
The 28-meter (92-foot) spruce had been chosen last winter from a nearby forest, stripped of branches and bark, dried, and painted three times in the state colors of white and blue. Metal signs bearing village guild emblems were affixed to its sides. For weeks before May Day, the pole was stored in a former sawmill and guarded around the clock — not out of paranoia, but because stealing a rival village’s maypole is itself a beloved tradition. A successful theft can cost the losing village up to 200 liters of beer and a whole barbecued pig with potato dumplings, a ransom that can run as high as 3,000 euros ($3,325).
By Friday morning, the maypole had survived unscathed. The club members, 240 strong and dressed in their festival best, paraded it on wooden carts pulled by two sturdy brewery horses to the market square. Children sat in a row atop the horizontal pole as the procession wound through the village. At the square, a Catholic priest who had just finished May Day Mass blessed the tree and the young men with holy water. Then the real work began.
Pairs of youths with long wooden rods took positions on both sides of the pole, shouting “Hau-Ruck” in rhythm as they levered it slowly upright. When it stood perfectly straight against a blue sky, the band sounded an extra fanfare and the crowd flooded into a festival tent for pork roast, sausages, and more beer.
“The Maypole is a symbol of togetherness,” Mayor Karl-Heinz Kerscher said, gesturing toward the effort. “All these young guys, when they give it their all, when they show their strength, that’s just proof that we’re powerful, that Bavaria means something, and that here in Kühbach it’s twice as beautiful.”
Florian Oberhauser, 26, head of the Kühbacher Burschen, offered a modern take: “Our motto is, ‘preserve traditions, shape the future’ — that really sums it up pretty well.”
Simone Nodlbichler, 41, a clarinetist who had played all morning as her band accompanied the procession, beamed as she put away her instrument. “This tradition is being passed down from generation to generation,” she said, with her two teenage daughters looking on. “As you can see, both young and old are involved. I think there’s a wonderful sense of community here, and it’s still very much alive.”