'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.
