A Celebration
of May Day / Beltane
'Perhaps its just as well that you won't be here...
to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations.'
--Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie from 'The Wicker Man'
There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and
the modern Witch's calendar, as well. The two greatest of
these are Halloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day
(the beginning of summer). Being opposite each other on the
wheel of the year, they separate the year into halves. Halloween
(also called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally
considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs
a close second. Indeed, in some areas -- notably Wales --
it is considered the great holiday. May Day ushers in the
fifth month of the modern calendar year, the month of May.
This month is named in honor of the goddess Maia, originally
a Greek mountain nymph, later identified as the most beautiful
of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the
mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's parents were Atlas
and Pleione, a sea nymph.
The old Celtic name for May
Day is Beltane (in its most popular Anglicized form), which
is derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine' or the Scottish
Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the fire of the Celtic
god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced
to the Middle Eastern god Baal. Other names for May Day include:
Cetsamhain ('opposite Samhain'), Walpurgisnacht (in Germany),
and Roodmas (the medieval Church's name). This last came from
Church Fathers who were hoping to shift the common people's
allegiance from the Maypole (Pagan lingham - symbol of life)
to the Holy Rood (the Cross - Roman instrument of death).
Incidentally, there is no historical justification for calling
May 1st 'Lady Day'. For hundreds of years, that title has
been proper to the Vernal Equinox (approx. March 21st), another
holiday sacred to the Great Goddess. The nontraditional use
of 'Lady Day' for May 1st is quite recent (within the last
15 years), and seems to be confined to America, where it has
gained widespread acceptance among certain segments of the
Craft population. This rather startling departure from tradition
would seem to indicate an unfamiliarity with European calendar
customs, as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship among
too many Pagans. A simple glance at a dictionary ('Webster's
3rd' or O.E.D.), encyclopedia ('Benet's'), or standard mythology
reference (Jobe's 'Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore &
Symbols') would confirm the correct date for Lady Day as the
Vernal Equinox. By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration
begins on sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because
the Celts always figured their days from sundown to sundown.
And sundown was the proper time for Druids to kindle the great
Bel-fires on the tops of the nearest beacon hill (such as
Tara Hill, Co. Meath, in Ireland). These 'need-fires' had
healing properties, and sky-clad Witches would jump through
the flames to ensure protection.
Sgt. Howie (shocked): 'But they are naked!'
Lord Summerisle: 'Naturally. It's much too dangerous to jump
through the fire with your clothes on!'
Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires
(oak wood was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow,
they would be taken to their summer pastures. Other May Day
customs include: walking the circuit of one's property ('beating
the bounds'), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions
of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris
dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens
bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their
youthful beauty. In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet
and Stewart Farrar, the Beltane celebration was principly
a time of '...unashamed human sexuality and fertility.' Such
associations include the obvious phallic symbolism of the
Maypole and riding the hobby horse. Even a seemingly innocent
children's nursery rhyme, 'Ride a cock horse to Banburry Cross...'
retains such memories. And the next line '...to see a fine
Lady on a white horse' is a reference to the annual ride of
'Lady Godiva' though Coventry. Every year for nearly three
centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected Queen of the
May) enacted this Pagan rite, until the Puritans put an end
to the custom.
The Puritans, in fact, reacted
with pious horror to most of the May Day rites, even making
Maypoles illegal in 1644. They especially attempted to suppress
the 'greenwood marriages' of young men and women who spent
the entire night in the forest, staying out to greet the May
sunrise, and bringing back boughs of flowers and garlands
to decorate the village the next morning. One angry Puritan
wrote that men 'doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the
night time, amongst maidens, to set bowes, in so muche, as
I have hearde of tenne maidens whiche went to set May, and
nine of them came home with childe.' And another Puritan complained
that, of the girls who go into the woods, 'not the least one
of them comes home again a virgin.' Long after the Christian
form of marriage (with its insistence on sexual monogamy)
had replaced the older Pagan handfasting, the rules of strict
fidelity were always relaxed for the May Eve rites. Names
such as Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Little John played an
important part in May Day folklore, often used as titles for
the dramatis personae of the celebrations. And modern surnames
such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin may attest to
some distant May Eve spent in the woods. These wildwood antics
have inspired writers such as Kipling:
'Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!'
And Lerner and Lowe:
'It's May! It's May!
The lusty month of May!...
Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,
Ev'ryone breaks.
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes!
The lusty month of May!'
It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's 'abduction'
by
Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the court have
gone a-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen's Guard,
on this occasion, rode unarmed.
Some of these customs seem
virtually identical to the old Roman feast of flowers, the
Floriala, three days of unrestrained sexuality which began
at sundown April 28th and reached a crescendo on May 1st.
There are other, even older, associations with May 1st in
Celtic mythology. According to the ancient Irish 'Book of
Invasions', the first settler of Ireland, Partholan, arrived
on May 1st; and it was on May 1st that the plague came which
destroyed his people. Years later, the Tuatha De Danann were
conquered by the Milesians on May Day. In Welsh myth, the
perennial battle between Gwythur and Gwyn for the love of
Creudylad took place each May Day; and it was on May Eve that
Teirnyon lost his colts and found Pryderi. May Eve was also
the occasion of a fearful scream that was heard each year
throughout Wales, one of the three curses of the Coranians
lifted by the skill of Lludd and Llevelys. By the way, due
to various calendrical changes down through the centuries,
the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as its astrological
date. This date, like all astronomically determined dates,
may vary by a day or two depending on the year. However, it
may be calculated easily enough by determining the date on
which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus (usually around May
5th). British Witches often refer to this date as Old Beltane,
and folklorists call it Beltane O.S. ('Old Style'). Some Covens
prefer to celebrate on the old date and, at the very least,
it gives one options. If a Coven is operating on 'Pagan Standard
Time' and misses May 1st altogether, it can still throw a
viable Beltane bash as long as it's before May 5th. This may
also be a consideration for Covens that need to organize activities
around the week-end. This date has long been considered a
'power point' of the Zodiac, and is symbolized by the Bull,
one of the 'tetramorph' figures featured on the Tarot cards,
the World and the Wheel of Fortune. (The other three symbols
are the Lion, the Eagle, and the Spirit.) Astrologers know
these four figures as the symbols of the four 'fixed' signs
of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius), and these
naturally align with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft.
Christians have adopted the same iconography to represent
the four gospel-writers.
But for most, it is May 1st
that is the great holiday of flowers, Maypoles, and greenwood
frivolity. It is no wonder that, as recently as 1977, Ian
Anderson could pen the following lyrics for Jethro Tull:
'For the May Day is the great day,
Sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley
Will heed this song that calls them back.'
| Authors Details: May Day / Beltane
- Mike Nichols - Unknown Web Site |
More Articles On The Wiccan Sabbats
(The Eight
Wiccan Sabbats)
(Winter Solstice - Yule)
(Imbolc)
(Ostara)
(Beltane)
(Summer
Solstice)
(Lammas)
(Mabon)
(Halloween
/ Samhain) |
