Lost the May game

The maypole is hugely popular in Sweden and you can't have a summer without a maypole. In Denmark the tradition has mostly died out and been replaced with the Saint Hans fire, but there's still a few areas where you can find maypoles in Denmark, and a lot of those places have a "catch the flag" tradition.



On some nights young guys from neighboring towns are allowed to try and steal it, so other young men have to guard their maypole, while another team sneaks over to the other town. Fighting isn't allowed, so stealth is everything and it's all in good fun.



I asked a bunch of Swedes and non of them had ever heard of this tradition in Sweden, so it seemed fitting to have Denmark steal Sweden's maypole.