May I make my fond excuses for the lateness of the hour,
But we accept your invitation, and we bring you Beltane’s flower.
For the May Day is the great day, sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley will heed the song that calls them back.
Pass the word and pass the lady, pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom, pass the cup of crimson wonder. –
Ian Anderson, “Cup of Wonder”
Today is May Day, called Beltane by the Celts and observed by dancing, feasting and (on May Eve) bonfires to mark the arrival of summer and the blossoming of both food plants and nature in general. As I stated in my column for Imbolc, the seasons in the North American interior are a bit tardier than those in Europe, so most of us won’t really see true summer weather until June (though in New Orleans summer usually lasts from late April until early October). Where I live we haven’t yet started our air conditioners and most of the nights are still deliciously cool, but the days are warm enough that we celebrate this day by converting many of our procedures to “summer mode” (which lasts until September 1st) and preparing our feast outdoors. That means steaks and potatoes grilled by my husband and appetizers, corn on the cob, cheese & beer bread and dessert (old-fashioned banana pudding) prepared by me; if any of you want the recipes for the latter two items I’ll be happy to oblige, though they’re both common enough in cookbooks.
Like Christmas, May Day (discussed more fully in my column of one year ago today) is a fusion of many pagan traditions starting with the Roman Floralia, which I’ll describe day after tomorrow; it’s the original source of the practice of crowning statues of goddesses with flowers (which was later transferred to statues of the Blessed Mother) and possibly the May Queen traditions as well, though there were undoubtedly similar practices in Celtic countries where a virgin stood in for the Goddess in ceremonies. Bonfires have been part of the celebration in northern countries since time immemorial, though as explained in yesterday’s column these had a different meaning in Germany than they did in Britain and Ireland (probably due to divergence of a common prehistoric tradition). But as I mentioned last year, the proximity of Easter caused most of the Christian celebration to migrate to that holiday, leaving May Day a secular and largely heathen observance which has slowly faded away and was eventually pre-empted in the minds of most by the international labor holiday popularized by communist countries throughout the 20th century.
Incidentally, May is named for Maia, an Oscan nature goddess who was adopted as the Roman goddess of spring. Her name is probably related to the Latin word maius (“greater” or “more”) from which our word “major” is derived, due to the fact that vegetation increases dramatically in the spring; she was thus unrelated to the Greek goddess of the same name, which in Greek meant “midwife”. Once the Roman pantheon became syncretized with the Greek (starting in the late 4th century BCE), the two Maias were of course combined; the association was even more solid because the Pleiades (which includes the star named for the Greek Maia) is located in Taurus, where in ancient times the sun appeared through most of May. Since the Greek Maia was the mother of Hermes the Roman one became the mother of Mercury, and his festival (the Mercuralia) was held on the Ides of May (May 15th). Coincidentally, the Germanic Odin (who as I mentioned yesterday was venerated on Beltane) was identified in the interpretatio Romana with Mercury due to his role as the creator of magic, thus providing another cord with which to tie the whole mythological package together.
I pray that all my readers, no matter what your individual beliefs, will be blessed in this “lusty” month with the magic of a fulfilling sex life. Blessed Be!
The Pleiades are also associated with Spring growth and the New Year in (Southern hemisphere of course) mythology of the Maori of New Zealand, where it is called Matarike. In one tradition Matariki is the mother surrounded by her six daughter. Of course that is the Southern hemisphere spring, opposite of the North. Everything get’s strangely reversed following the European traditional calenders, so that we have Easter in Autumn, and Bonfire night in Spring. Or at least in NZ we do, but with the Anglo-Prosetant roots, Nov 5 Guy Fawkes night is the big night for bonfires and fireworks. In Australia the fire risk is too high for fireworks, and so Halloween has become much more popular, in the American style.
Ireland has lots of archaeological remains from the Celts. There is a stone circle at Beltany, Co Donegal which may be associated with May Day rites. More here: http://www.culturalheritageireland.ie/index.php/heritage-sites-and-centres/191-the-festival-of-beltaine-and-the-beltany-stone-circle#Mayday
Being one of the men that American don’t even want to admit exists, this is an annoying holiday. Yeah, I’ve learned my lesson and am trying to figure out a practical way to leave this gods-forsaken country.
Wonderful information, I am always happy to see my brothers and sisters coming together to try and bring love, peace, and understanding to the world. I am still surprised to see so many opposing, or downright faithless people interacting with something that rocks their little boat so much. Keep up the good work! Blessings to you and yours.
Stolen 🙂
http://amazingwomenrock.com/may-day-dance-away
<3
Report from New Orleans – well, near it anyways – it’s butt-fuckin’ hot!
Spent all day yesterday driving a huge all-terrain forklift that’s about two stories tall, no power steering, no a/c, and some idiot locked one of the doors and the window. By the end of the day it felt like I had gone nine rounds with three three-hundred pound Samoan boys. Yeah – that HOT.
My favorite band, Jethro Tull, also did a song called “Beltane”. It was one of the bonus tracks on the extended “Songs from the Wood” album.
Here’s a link to it on Youtube:
Did you see the link in the epigram? I was think of you when I put it there. 😉
I did. Thank you. Now where I grew up, one of the customs surrounding May day was well dressing, you brought all sorts of flowers and decorated wells. Sort of an ancient Celtic custom, to see bodies of water as a connection to the spirit world.
Lets not forget the old Morris dancing, eh? 😎
“And aaalll arownd mye hatt, Iye will weare the green willoww,
aaalll arownd mye hatt, forrr a twelvemonth and a daye
aand if annyone should aask me, tha reasone that eyme wearin it
its aaal for mye truelove, whose faaar far awaye”
Just for you, comixchik ❤
I have an early childhood memory of watching young girls dancing around a maypole. I think maybe I was three or four. Maybe I imagined it but it still seems so real. I remember wondering how the strings did not get tangled.
Then there was the “May Baskets”. I was about seven or so and I heard a loud noise on my porch. I found a May basket on the porch and watched a friend of mine named “Elaine” running away. I asked the next time I saw her why she ran. She told me she didn’t want me to kiss her. I suppose that was part of the tradition.
It seems like it would be real easy for people doing the maypole thing to bump into each other. Maybe that’s the point.
It takes practice not to do that, sailor. The idea is that the maypole should get wrapped in a woven symmetrical pattern of ribbons by dancing correctly.
Ancient fertility rite, IIRC 😈
I knew that Odin was identified with Mercury, because of Wednesday, but I never understood why. They always seemed so different to me. Thank you for explaining the connection.
There has been a surprising recrudescence ofinterest in Beltane this year, both in Britain and in Ireland. I’ve been invited to a local “Bealtaine” festival on 27 May….I might even go.
That’s a wonderful word one doesn’t often hear any more: “recrudescence”. 🙂
I’ve only heard it once before, from a dermatologist, referring to the return and worsening of a skin rash.
One comment on not calling the cops:
The “stand and defend yourself” laws are supposed to allow for citizens to perform the duties of mutual defence that cops are supposed to do but are so woefully terrible at. Alas, it got one erstwhile white Hispanic into trouble.
Even calling cops to report a crime is a dodgy thing: They eitgher do nothing or look at you with doubt and suspicion.
The “stand you ground” law that is being debated in the Trayvon Martin case is a different thing from “castle laws.” SYG basically declares that anything you can see is your castle.
Well…not really.