|
A Celebration of May Day
by Mike
Nichols
'Perhaps it's 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 (since the early 1970's), 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.
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 principally 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
insistance 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.
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 perenial 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 the band 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.
|
