'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.), excyclopedia
('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!'
--from "The Wicker Man"
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 celbration 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 forty,
threescore or a hundred maids going to the wood over night, there
have scarcely the third part of them returned home again undefiled.'
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.