This is an organic document, and is being regularly updated. If your interpretation of a holiday isn't mentioned, please let me know. Marc Carlson Marc-Carlson@UTULSA.EDU Last updated 1998 ================================================================ For some traditions, these Holidays begin at Sundown the evening BEFORE the date given. 6 April "Old Lady Day". c.18 April 1st day of summer in Iceland 23 April St. George's Day. This holiday is celebrated by the stringing and hanging of flowers and garlands. Founding of the Order of the Garter. May Eve (30 Apri) (Beltain eve; Walpurgisnacht) *Interpretations* * On Beltain eve, young people roam about acting out the coming of the Goddess of the Spring. All fires are extinguished on Beltain eve, to be rekindled later. * Faeries are purported to be active. * This is the time to ward off evil. * It is the tradition on May eve for people to tear branches from the Hawthorn, to bedeck the gates and lintels of their homes. The Hawthorn (or Whitethorn) is the tree of hope, pleasure and protection. Hawthorn heralds the coming of summer when hedgerows throughout the countryside are filled with its white blossom. The branches which are used to adorn the house bring protection to your home and boundaries at a time of boundary between the seasons. For good luck the hawthorn branches should be kept outside the house. Apr 30 - May 1 (May Day or Beltine/Beltaine "Behl's Fires", Bealtaine; Calan Mai "the Kalends of Mai", Cet- soman/Cet Somain "First day of Summer", "Summer's Beginning"; Cyntefyn; Roodmas) The first day of Samhradh, or the 3rd Quarter; The first day of Samon "Summer". * As the weather begins to warm and the plant begin to blossom forth, a mood of exhuberance also erupts. * Irish Gaelic for either "fires of Bel" or "bright fires." If you want to try it in Gaelic, you can say "bee-YAWL-tinnuh" or "BELL-tinnuh." Unlike Samhain, this word can within the linguistic structure of its language of origin be pronounced like it looks -- "BELL-tane" -- without totally abandoning its original construction. Other names are Walpurgisnacht (vawl-PUR-gis-nahkt) and May Day. * The name "May" allegedly comes from a Norse word meaning "to shoot out new growth"; although it is more likely that 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. * There is no real justification for referring to May Day as "Lady Day". *Interpretations* * May 1st was the midpoint of the Floriala a five-day Roman festival to Flora, Goddess of Flowers. * Another Rebirth celebration, this time of the planting and fertility. * Cleaning away the remains of the Winter, and relighting the home fires. Houseblessing. Planting trees, weaving Garlands, sing "spring carols" * It is a celebration to the god Belenus, and most particulalry in his aspect as war-god as summer was the traditional time for war. * This is also a time for celebrating other forms of "goings forth" to pasture, to hunt, to woo, etc. * To some people it is a festival honoring the sun god Belanos, and the Goddess Danu. In modern rituals, it is usually a celebration of the Goddess. * The day when the new king is strong enough to give his power to the land. * The anniversary of the arrival of the first settler of Ireland, Partholan; the plague that destroyed his people. All subsequent invasions occur on May 1, including the Tuatha De Danann and the Milesians. * In Welsh myth, the perennial battle between Gwythur and Gwyn for the love of Creudylad took place each Calan Mai; and it was on May Eve that Teirnyon lost his colts and found Pryderi. On May eve a demon stole all the new-born children and animals in Pwyll. 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, battling dragons. In Brecon, the doors to Fairyland are opened. * For the Goidelic Celts, Bonfires are an important symbol. The cattle were driven between bonfires to bless them on their way to their summer pastures. Some people leaped the fires for luck. * For the Brythonic Celts, this was the beginning of the New Year and had many of the same connotations as Samhain did for the Goidelic Celts. May-poles were far more important symbolically than any bon-fires. * Folklore about Beltain includes the gathering of "Wild" water (dew, flowing streams or ocean water) is collected as a basis for healing drinks and potions for the year to come; the dew of the morning for use in curatives, the 1st water drawn from a well (as long as it leaves the water flowers undisturbed, is magical. Planting a rush in front of the door to your home is lucky. It is a time to gather healing herbs, and for exchanging gifts. Also 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. Marriages and births are unlikely to take place on Beltain. * Other May Day customs include: walking the circuit of one's property ('beating the bounds'), repairing fences and boundary markers, riding hobby horses, processions of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, making May baskets, May bonnets, Garlands, 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. Planting a rush in front of the door to your home is lucky. It is a time to gather healing herbs, and for exchanging gifts. Houseblessing. Planting trees, weaving Garlands, sing "spring carols". Marriages and births are unlikely to take place on Beltain. Rituals with the King and Queen of the May, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Little John have been common. * In modern rituals, it is usually a celebration of the Goddess. The concept of the unbridled sexuality of 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 has been focussed on to the exclusion of everything else. * The practice of unabashed sexuality on May Day is a modern interpretation, based on the purported relaxation of traditional mores of fidelity in celebration of fertility, and far too greatly overshadows the important of other aspects in modern rituals. * One should pass between the bon-fires and pass one's lifestock between the fires, destroying things that are unlucky in the fires as you pass, ands protecting them from diseases. * This is not a traditional Anglo Saxon Holiday. It is Vappu Day in Finland c5 May Old Beltane/Beltane O.S. ('Old Style') 6 May Shepherd's Day/Herdsmans Day (Bulgaria) 8 May "Furry Day" (Helston, Eng.) Battle between St. Michael and Satan. 12 May "Old May Day"; Garland Day; Opening of fishing (Dorset) 21 May Anastenarides Feast (Macedonia) 29 May "Garland Day" (Derby) - There is a procession of the May King and his Consort. 9 June May Day celebrated in Dorset.