Here is a set of pictures I found on flickr of the Perahera procession in SriLanka.

And here is a bit from Wikipedia: In the 2005 Perahera (procession) at Kataragama in Sri Lanka; children in local dress, plaited tapes and clashed sticks as they danced around a moving, portable "Maypole." They then reversed direction to un-plait the tapes around the moving maypole. It was not clear whether they were portraying a period of English or general European influence on Ceylon or whether this is an older, local tradition.