* * * * * *
"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 lingam -
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 non-traditional 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: 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..." retain 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 Marion, 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.
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. 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 this date.
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 four
"tetramorph" figures featured on the Tarot cards the World
and the Wheel of Fortune. (The other three 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, respectively), 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.
THE END