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.), 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.
Document Copyright © 1986,
2000 by Mike Nichols
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Nichols.
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