As can be seen from the in-depth studies of the ethnochoreologist Giuseppe M. Gala, maypole dancing is a choreutical module spread throughout the European continent and also found in certain areas of North Africa (Morocco and Algeria), in West Bengal and in many parts of Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia). In Europe maypole dancing is attested in Provence with the name of danse des cordelles, while in Burgundy, near Mâcon, a similar dance called danse de rubans was in use; the same dance was widespread in Belgium, Sweden, England, Russia and Spain but the most numerous testimonies relate to the German speaking area, where it is still practiced in a vast area of Bavaria with the name of Bandltanz. In Italy maypole dancing is present in the area of Campania in the carnival period (‘Ndrezzata, Palintrezzo, Ribbons of Love), in Petralia Sottana in the province of Palermo (Ballo della Cordella), in Piedmont (Bal do Sabre); finally, the only case in Abruzzo in addition to that of Penna Sant’Andrea, the maypole dance survives in Castiglione Messer Marino as an itinerant carnival rite (Dance of the Bride).

The extraordinary geographical extension of the dance strengthens the hypothesis of its antiquity; some studies connect the choreutical ribbon interlacement to arboreal dances practiced in relation to the cult of the trees of Neolithic origin based on the evocation of the vital force and fertility. The dance has propitiatory functions as testified by the practice today still in force in Penna Sant’Andrea, where the interlacing of coloured ribbons is often performed at weddings as a sign of hope for the married couple. The hypotheses about the origins of the dance in Penna Sant’Andrea are controversial: it may have been introduced by some Lombardi masons that in the Renaissance period worked on the restoration of the local Church of Santa Maria del Soccorso or introduced by the Spaniards and then spread to other areas of the Kingdom of Naples. It is also possible that such influences were added to a local tradition, enriching it with new elements.

The traditional dances from Penna Sant’Andrea have been encoded in the course of the twentieth century by the “Laccio d’amore” (Ribbons of Love) folk group . The zenna cupertë, is a processional dance for transfers, used in the past for moving from one district to another and divided into two phases, the procession and the gallery. The saldarellë is performed in pairs and inserted into a formal framework for simulating courtship while the trallallerë is an accentuation of the courtship to the rhythm of quadrille. In the polchë men and women dance round in opposite directions, giving first the right hand and then the left at every encounter with a different dancer. The actual maypole dance is characterized by twelve pairs of dancers braiding twenty-four coloured ribbons around a pole in a differentiated series of weaves and dance steps. There are five different types of weaves and levels of complexity, performed to the rhythm of Saltarella (simple pole, the pole in pairs, the pole at fours, the double pole and the treccette (plait), guided by commands in dialect and accompanied by the two-bass organetto (ddu bottë), accordion, tambourine (ciuciombrë), guitar and friction drum (battafochë).