May Day and the Celtic Tradition of Beltane May 9, 2021

May Day and the Celtic Tradition of Beltane

I am not preparing traditional "sermons" for our monthly Second Sundays in the Park; rather, I am gathering information from my own knowledge and supportive research to present to the group for discussion. This month, the plan was to discuss how the ancient and more recent practices around May Day could apply to our 21st Century lives, as well as ways we could look at them from the perspectives of our own belief systems and practices. As you read through the notes, consider how you might interpret the ideas presented, and if they might apply or be applied in your lives. At the end of the notes, I will include a short paragraph about my own perceptions and practices around Beltaine/May Day. Please note that this information is not exhaustive.

• Beltane, Beltine, in Irish, Beltaine or Belltaine
• Also known as Cétamain or Cétshamhain (meaning “first of summer”)

History of Beltane in the UK

• Festivals are held on the first day of May in Ireland and Scotland. Beltane is first mentioned in a glossary attributed to Cormac, bishop of Cashel and king of Munster, who was killed in 908.

• A similar celebration is held in Wales, called Calan Mai.

• Beginning of summer and open pasturing, when cattle or sheep were led out to the pastures.

• Rituals to protect the cattle, crops, and people, and to encourage growth and fertility.

• Lit bonfires - flames, smoke, and ashes were believed to have protective powers.

• People and cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers.

• Cormac describes how cattle were driven between two bonfires on Beltane as a magical means of protecting them from disease before they were led into summer pastures

• All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire.

• These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast.

• Other festivities included Maypole dances and cutting of green boughs.

• Holy wells were visited at Beltane, and during Gaelic festivals of Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

• People would pray for health while walking “Sunwise,” (deosil, clockwise) around the well. 

• Leave offerings; typically coins or “Clooties” (cloth strips or ribbons)

• The first water drawn from a well on Beltane was seen as being especially potent, as was Beltane morning dew.

• At dawn on Beltane, young women would roll in the dew or wash their faces with it. It would also be collected in a jar, left in the sunlight, and then filtered. They believed that dw would increase sexual attractiveness, maintain youthfulness, and help with skin ailments. 

• People also took steps specifically to ward off or appease the faeries

• Leaving food or milk poured at the doorstep or places associated with the faeries as an offering.

• In Ireland, cattle would be brought to 'fairy forts', where a small amount of their blood would be collected. The owners would then pour it into the earth with prayers for the herd's safety. Sometimes the blood would be left to dry and then be burnt.

• They thought that dairy products were especially at risk from harmful spirits

• To protect farm produce and encourage fertility, farmers would lead a procession around the boundaries of their farm. They would "carry with them seeds of grain, implements of husbandry, the first well water, and the herb vervain (or rowan as a substitute). The procession generally stopped at the four cardinal points of the compass, beginning in the east, and rituals were performed in each of the four directions"

• The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today

• Beltane festivals had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued.

• In Ireland, Beltane fires were common until the mid-20th century 

• It has been revived in some parts of the country.

• Lighting a community Beltane fire from which each hearth fire is then relit is observed today in some places

• In the town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders,  there is a traditional week-long Beltane Fair every year in June, when a local girl is crowned Beltane Queen on the steps of the parish church.

NeoPaganism

• Beltane celebrations are held by some Neopagans.

• As there are many kinds of Neopaganism, Beltane celebrations can be very different despite the shared name. Some try to emulate the historic festival as much as possible

• Other Neopagans base their celebrations on many sources, the Gaelic festival being only one of them 

• Neopagans usually celebrate Beltane on 30 April – 1 May in the Northern Hemisphere and 31 October – 1 November in the Southern Hemisphere, beginning and ending at sunset.

• Celtic Reconstructionists usually celebrate Lá Bealtaine when the local hawthorn trees are in bloom. 

• Bonfire rites, to whatever extent this is feasible where they live.

• This may involve passing themselves and their pets or livestock between two bonfires, and bringing home a candle lit from the bonfire.

• If they are unable to make a bonfire or attend a bonfire ceremony, torches or candles may be used instead.

• They may decorate their homes with a May Bush, branches from blooming thorn trees, or equal-armed rowan crosses. Holy wells may be visited and offerings made to the spirits or deities of the wells.

• Traditional festival foods may also be prepared.

Wicca

• Wiccans use the name Beltane or Beltain for their May Day celebrations.

• It is one of the yearly Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, following Ostara and preceding Midsummer.

• Wicca is syncretic and melds practices from many different cultures.

• Wiccan Beltane is more like a Germanic/English May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as maypole dancing).

• Some Wiccans enact a ritual union of the dual divinities the May Lord and May Lady.

Maypoles

• A tall wooden pole erected around which a maypole dance often takes place.

• The maypole may have ribbons attached to it, each dancer taking the end of a ribbon, then the dancers weave in and out around each other as they circle the pole with the ribbons

• Primarily found within the nations of Germanic Europe and the areas which they have influenced

• It has often been speculated that the maypole originally had some importance in the Germanic paganism of Iron Age and early Medieval cultures

• The tradition survived the arrival of Christianity, but may have lost some of its meaning

• The symbolism of the maypole has been continuously debated by folklorists for centuries, although no definitive answer has been found.

• Some scholars classify maypoles as symbols of the world axis (axis mundi).

• One theory holds that they were a remnant of the Germanic reverence for sacred trees, as there is evidence for various sacred trees and wooden pillars that were venerated by the pagans across much of Germanic Europe, including Thor's Oak and Yggdrasil, the World Tree

• Many have attributed phallic symbolism to the Maypole, which was an idea which was expressed by Thomas Hobbes

• This theory has been supported by various figures since, including Sigmund Freud.

• According to Ronald Hutton "there is no historical basis for his claim, and no sign that the people who used maypoles thought that they were phallic" and that "they were not carved to appear so." 

• Anthropologist Mircea Eliade theorizes that the maypoles were simply a part of the general rejoicing at the return of summer, and the growth of new vegetation.

• In this way, they bore similarities with the May Day garlands which were also a common festival practice in Britain and Ireland. 

• In Britain the maypole was mostly found in England, the Scottish Lowlands, and Wales.

• The earliest recorded evidence comes from a Welsh poem written in the mid-14th century, describing how people used a tall birch pole

• Literary evidence for maypole use across much of Britain increases in later decades, and "by the period 1350-1400 the custom was well established across southern Britain, in town and country and in both Welsh-speaking and English-speaking areas.” 

• Protestant growth in the 16th century led to increasing disapproval of maypoles and other May Day practices, labeling them as idolatry.

• The earliest use of the Maypole in America occurred in 1628, where William Bradford, governor of New Plymouth, wrote of an incident where a number of servants, together with the aid of an agent, broke free from their indentured service to create their own colony, setting up a maypole in the center of the settlement, and behaving in such a way as to receive the scorn and disapproval of the nearby colonies

May Baskets

• May Baskets— like the ancient act of dancing around the maypole — was once a widespread rite of spring in the United States.

• May baskets are paper baskets or cones (or sometimes small baskets made of wicker or some other material) with spring flowers, left on door knobs or door steps.

• The custom was to knock on the door, yell “May basket!” and then run. If the recipient caught the giver, he or she was entitled to a kiss.

• This tradition was popular through the 19th and 20th centuries, especially with children or sweethearts. 

• The May Day basket is still a tradition for some Americans though it’s less known today.

Walpurgasnicht

• The festival of Walpurgis Night is named after the English Christian missionary Saint Walpurga (c. 710–777/9).

• Saint Walpurga (also known as Saint Walpurgis or Walburga) was born in Devon, England in A.D. 710 into a prominent Anglo-Saxon family,

• The daughter of Saint Richard the Pilgrim and sister of Saint Willibald,

• Saint Walpurga studied medicine and became a Christian missionary to Germany, where she founded a double monastery in Heidenheim

• Christian artwork often depicts her holding bandages in her hand.

• The tradition is that Saint Walpurga's evangelism in Germany, the people there converted to Christianity from heathenism.

• Due to 1 May the date of Saint Walpurga's feast, it has become associated with other May Day celebrations and regional traditions especially in Finland and Sweden.

• One Swedish student shared on social media that the traditions around Walpurgasnicht are “far from Christian.”

• Saint Walpurga was believed to be efficacious against evil magic,

• Medieval and Renaissance tradition held that, during Walpurgis Night, witches celebrated a sabbath and evil powers were strong.

• Walpurgis Night was believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany.

• To ward off evil and protect themselves and their livestock, people would traditionally light fires on the hillsides, a tradition that continues in some regions today

• In Bavaria, the feast day is sometimes called Hexennacht (Dutch: heksennacht), literally "Witches' Night", on which revelers dress as witches and demons, set off fireworks, dance and play loud music, which is said to drive the witches and winter spirits away.

International Worker’s Day

• Commemorates the struggle of workers and the labor movement, observed in many countries on May 1.

• In the United States and Canada, a similar observance, known as Labor Day, occurs on the first Monday of September.

• In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886)

• May Day has been a day of demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups and is one of the most important holidays in communist countries such as China, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union countries.

• May Day celebrations in these countries typically feature elaborate workforce parades, including displays of military hardware and soldiers.

• In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated 1 May to "Saint Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers and craftsmen 

• Today, the majority of countries around the world celebrate a workers' day on May 1

How I Have Celebrated May Day/Beltane

When I was a little girl in Minnesota, we made May Baskets in school. I remember cutting construction paper into strips and weaving them together. We would then fold up the woven sheets and secure them into little boxes with staples or glue, finally stapling on a handle made from a strip of contruction paper. We made flowers with tissue and pipe cleaners to fill our little baskets. We would take them home with us to wait until May 1st, when we would trudge over to the neighbor's house, hang the baskets on the door, knock, and run. It was great fun.

Usually on the same day we made the baskets, there would be a Maypole set up in the schoolyard, a tall pole bedecked with ribbons. We children would each take the end of a ribbon. The teachers would play a record, and when the music started, we would dance and skip around the pole, weaving in and out of each other. I remember laughing around the pole until my ribbon was thoroughly twisted around. When we were done, the pole was decorated with the multi-colored ribbons.

This experience was such a happy one for me that I carried it in my memories until I introduced it to my children when they were small. By then, I knew about the Celtic wheel of the Year and Beltane. Most years, I would purchase small baskets and artificial flowers for the children to put together for the neighbors. We would try to make enough May Baskets to hang on the doorknobs of all our closest neighbors. The Maypole, too, became a tradition for us, along with another small single-mom family we are close friends with. While all the children were little, we would try each year to meet for a picnic at a park or other place where we could tie ribbons to a tree or a pole, and the children would dance, much like I did as a little girl. Their schools didn't do these things, and they became famiy traditions. 

For much of the time my children were young, I was a practicing Neopagan, and if there was ever an opportunity to take them to larger festivals where they could take part in activities with other children, we would attend. Even as I transitioned into a time when I was focused more on the United Methodist Church, we still made May Baskets as a family. We still danced the Maypole.

While we certainly never discussed the Maypole as a "phallic symbol" when my children were young, we did talk about the representation of the flowers, the dance, and the day itself as a celebration of fertility, spring, and the birth of new life. As we recognized Ostara AND Easter as the beginning of spring and newly emerging life, Beltane/May Day was the continuation of this new life. I taught them about the pastoral/agricultural cycles as they once were for everyone, because I wanted them to understand that though we cannot always see or feel the rhythm of the cycle of life in the urban world that surrounds us, that rhythm is still there. It is real, and it is important. It is about remembering what life on earth was like before the pollution, climate change, and deforestation. It is about understanding that we need to somehow stop hurting the planet and ourselves.

As an American, I don't really note May Day as a day for workers, since we have Labor Day for that. However, I do acknowledge it, for we live in a global world, and I support people around the world who fight for equality, justice, and fair pay. There is not much more I can do.

One of my daughters has carried on the traditions of May Day with her daughters. They live in a more rural area, surrounded by cattle, farmland, and woods. I am certain that my granddaughters will get the feel of life's rhythms and the joy of celebrating the turning of the wheel easily. It will make some sense to them. Perhaps they will carry it on to a new generation, and perhaps they will change the trajectory of the industrialized world.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now

It's just a spring clean for the May queen

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin

Maypole

Public Domain