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Welcome to Kildonan Times ezine! Kildonan Times is the occasional newsletter/ezine of the novel, Clovenstone, Stones Seven, and beyond to things medieval, Celtic, literary, and mythic. BACK ISSUES OF KILDONAN TIMES are published on the Kildonan Times website. If you wish to read or print any of the back issues, the Kildonan Times website can be accessed from pages on Clovenstone Chronicles or you can go directly to the website at Kildonan Times You can also subscribe to Kildonan Times at either site. KILDONAN TIMES
Beltainne back then was a time of dancing, flowers, drinking, and sex. It was a celebration of fertility and birth. Through the centuries, May Day evolved into a social, not religious, celebration of spring, birth, and love in a more romantic sense, as we know it today. There's the dance around the May Pole, lovers wandering in the woods and writing poems, and the practice of gathering spring flowers - particularly violets - and presenting them to friends. Beltainne still remains a major religious festival to the earth-centered religions like Celtic Wicca. When I was a child, we made little paper baskets, put violets or whatever we could find as spring flowers in them, and took them to neighbors. Since May is cold and rainy in Michigan usually, and flowers were hard to find, the May flowers were often made of paper. The pictures in books of merry children dancing around the maypole in meadows of flowers, and lovers sitting on warm grass at the edge of a stream mayt have happened somewhere in Britain, but not in Michigan. In fact, the Maypole Dance on Little Cranberry Island off the coast of Maine is held in July, when the weather is sure to be warm and flowery. This morning I had an email from a friend of mine, Donna (aka SilverMoonMare), who practices Celtic Wicca. (See The Different Groups of Witches and Witchy Terms for the many kinds of Wicca.) She said she was going to make Honey Cake for Beltainne. I asked her for the recipe and about the custom of making a Honey Cake. She obliged with the following: Sweets were an important part of the feasting. Honey is traditionally a favorite food, as small cakes, and the all-time favorite Meade are made with this tasty substance. The honey cakes, being sweet, were made as an offering to the Goddess and God. These cakes were also made for Imbolg in February. Even today bale fires are lit in Britain and Ireland on "May Eve" just as they were in the past. Our pagan ancestors had many crop fertility spells and charms to try to counteract the worst of Mother Nature. Besoms (brooms) were ridden hobbyhorse-style over fields and through pastures by women in symbolic fertility rites. This is where the old broom-riding witch fable comes from. The ashes from the balefires were also scattered over the fields to bless and protect them, and infertile women wore the ashes around their necks in small pouches to bring forth fertility to their barren wombs. So there you have a taste of the history and practices of Beltainne. If you'd like to celebrate May Day in a traditional manner, put up a May Pole, decorate with and give flowers, and bake a Honey Cake. Or at least bake a Honey Cake to welcome summer. HONEY CAKE 2 and 1/2 cups flour (optional topping) 1 and 1/4 cups unsweetened orange juice 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan. This cake is traditionally served unfrosted, but you can make a frosting with the confectioners' sugar, milk, and orange juice. NOTE: The funny fellow up on top is the Green Man. I'll talk about him some more in the June issue.
FOODS AS MEDICINE Someone sent me this over the Internet. It's sort of a fun thing. If you follow health articles and read health magazines, a lot of the following information won't be new to you. Teas, fruits and vegetables and nuts fit into the fuzzy definition of "herb." The other foods are just good for you. These aren't magic wands. You have to consume these foods over a period of time and eat quite a bit of them on a regular basis to get any effect from them. Look at them not as pills, but as a lifestyle. The comments in red are mine. HEADACHE? EAT FISH!
HAY FEVER? EAT YOGURT! INSOMNIA (CAN'T SLEEP?) HONEY! ASTHMA? EAT ONIONS!!!!
ARTHRITIS? EAT FISH, TOO!! BLADDER INFECTION? DRINK CRANBERRY JUICE!!!! BONE PROBLEMS? EAT PINEAPPLE!!! COLDS? EAT GARLIC! WORRIED ABOUT BREAST CANCER? Eat wheat, bran, and cabbage (also soy products) FRUITS: Kiwi: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, Vitamin E & fiber. It's Vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.
ANOTHER NOTE: The festivals in the Clovenstone Chronicles are a mix of historic Celtic fest names, and names and festivals I made up just for Kildonan. I do use Bealltainn (my preferred spelling) in its historic sense, as the beginning of summer. In Kildonan, Belltainn is the first day of Bealltainn-Monthe, the month in which the animals are taken to the far pastures for the summer. Before calendars, Belltainn was determined by the weather, and so the date was very flexible. With the advent reckoning time from the position of the stars, Beltane, a cross-quarter day, was determined to be the day that was half-way between the March equinox and the June solstice.
A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth) My friend Nicholas in England sent me a story this last month, his first try at serious writing. It was a good story, and he has the makings of a good writer. Not only that, but he has the pride now of saying, "I wrote a story," not the wistfullness of saying, "Some day I'd like to write something." Eight of the members our local Writers' Guild held a group writers' event last Sunday. We called it a writer talk-book reading happening. We each set up a table with our manuscripts and/or books displayed, and we each took a turn reading an excerpt from our writing. Between readings, we fed the guests muffins and coffee and talked to them about writing. One object was to announce ourselves to any actual or wannabe writers out in the brush, and encourage them to join our group for support of their efforts. Another was to provide a casual forum for anyone who wanted to drop by and just talk about reading and books. We wanted the guests not only to talk to us, but to chat with each other. And yes, the wannabes came. This one had an idea for a short story, but didn't know how to begin. That one would like to write a mystery, but just hadn't got around to it. Another one wanted to write about a family tragedy, but....The answer is always the same for everyone. Sit down and write. You can compose in your head forever and get nowhere. You have to write. So it sounds dumb when you get it on paper. Keep writing. Your spelling and typos are terrible. Forget them. Keep writing. Write every time you get a minute. Keep a notebook and pen handy for times you're not at your computer. Write while you wait to be served at a restaurant. Write as you ride along in the car. Write while you're standing in line at the bank. By writing and writing, you practice and get better at it. By writing, you enlarge your world through the process of creation. By writing, you improve your thinking skills and your vocabulary. People will be impressed with your devotion to your craft, - or think you're a little strange. But do you care? You're a writer! When you get your written story, authobiography, poem, or other creation done, you'll want people to read it and enjoy your work as much as you did writing the piece. Many great writers have published just for their families and friends. In our computer era, you can publish your writings all by yourself with your own inkjet printer. I wrote a detailed journal of my first trip to Britain in 1992, which lasted fourteen weeks. I illustrated it with my trip photos. Then I printed out a dozen or so copies, put them in nice binders, and gave them to friends and relatives to read. They are circulating yet, more than ten years later. People still ask to read them. It's a nice feeling. You can feel good, too. Or you can publish your writings on a website for people to read. Many, many writers publish only on their websites, and attract good audiences. There are hundreds of web hosts who will put your personal website up on the internet for free, starting with AOL (if they're your service provider) or Angelfire (for anyone). Get your work up on the net, then start emailing the URL to everyone you know. You are a published author! Congratulations! Write on! R
And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about the novels of Clovenstone Chronicles. Give them an adventure! Order your copy of Clovenstone or Stones Seven from: or your local bookstore.
Read back issues of Kildonan Times here. Read sample chapters of Clovenstone and Stones Seven here Thanks to Eric Lee Williams of http://www.true-words.com/foa/foa_current.html for hosting the mail service for Kildonan Times All text © copyrighted by Ruth McIntyre-Williams. |
ay 1 is May Day, or in the traditional Celtic culture, Beltane (also spelled Beltine, Beltainne, Beltain, Beal-tine, Beltan, Bel-tien, and Beltein). Early on the Druids celebrated their god of fire, Bel (Bale), with lighting fires, later called "balefires." Some time later the festival got moved to spring, and was celebrated by the Celts for the warmth and fecundity of summer. The custom of lighting fires continued into the May celebrations. In traditional Celtic Wicca, it is the festival welcoming the "bright" half of the year. It is sometimes celebrated as "May Eve" or "Roodmas" on April 30. Celtic festivals run from sunset to sunset, and time is counted as the number of nights, not the number of days. (Samhuin, in contrast, signals the beginning of the "dark" half of the year, and is on November 1.)
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