HAPPY MAY DAY

A MAY BASKET FOR YOU

Growing up as kids in North Dakota, my friends and I certainly didn't observe Beltane like the Celts, or frolic on May Day like English village folk. We didn't even have the flowering May baskets that are common May Day greetings in the U.S.

We did, however, make candy May baskets. I chose the photo above because it reminds me of the candy baskets we used to make. We would take a paper cup, much like the one above, add a pipe cleaner handle, and fill it with candy. Or, we would take an ordinary square paper napkin in a pastel color like mint green or yellow. We would open it up, add a handful of small candies, gather the edges together and tie it with a curling ribbon. We would deliver the "baskets" to the recipient's doorstep, ring or knock, then try to run out of sight before the door opened.

Although I received neither a flower or candy basket this morning, I did get a May Day gift. Vicki, a stranger until this morning, posted a comment on my Beltane essay. Naturally, I had to check out her blog. The first thing I saw was the full-length video for "Huron Beltane Fire Dance", for which I had given a pitiful one-minute audio link. Of course, I had to borrow her idea, so I posted the video to my blog too. The video is of Michael Flatley performing a dance to McKennett's music, with the cast of "Riverdance" (or "Lord of the Dance," I'm not quite sure.) I also found McKennitt's version of the video, so I had to post that too. To view either/both, just look at the top right side of my blog and click on the video you want to watch.

I prefer McKennitt's video. First, because even though I am mesmerized by Flatley's dancing, I can never look at him without thinking "Mr. Obnoxiously Swelled Head". Also, the dancers in McKennitt's video are authentic amateur Celtic dancers. Plus, you also get to have a look at Loreena, one of my most admired singers.

Vicki's blog, Victoria Station, (http://camlann.spaces.live.com/) was a treat in so many other ways that it made me late getting out of the house this morning. I mentioned that she was a stranger until this morning. Now I consider her a friend and more - a kindred spirit, a soul sister, an Anam Cara. We both love rubber stamps, collage, altered art, journaling, letter writing, historical fiction, children's literature, all things British, Pre-Raphaelite painters, ephemera, etc. etc. She also has links to some wonderful new (to me) programs, but I will address them later. What a great start to the month of May!

Happy May Day, Everyone!

"....AND DANCE BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON"

"BELTANE GROVE"

(by Mickie Mueller)

Tonight is the Eve of Beltane, one of the two most important Celtic festivals of the year, or, as you probably know it, May Day. It is properly observed from sunset April 30 to sunset May 1.

On Beltane (or Beltaine) Eve and its counterpart, Samhain Eve (or Halloween), the veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest. But unlike Samhain, when spirits of the dead roam the world, on Beltane Eve it is the fairies who are returning from their winter respite, carefree and full of fairy delight and mischief. Beware, tonight the Queen of the Fairies will ride out on her white steed to entice humans away to fairyland. If you hear the bells on her horse, turn your face away, or she may choose you!

More properly, Beltane is a Gaelic festival, celebrated by those in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. (Other Celts, like the Welsh, had similar celebrations). The name Beltane means bright fire, bale fire, or Fire of Bel (Bel or Belinos being the Sun God). Halfway between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, this day marks the beginning of the bright half of the year.

Preparations for Beltane began with gathering flowers for the Maypole and for wearing on the body and in the hair. Young men went May boughing or May birching, gathering garlands of hawthorn (Mayflower) and rowan (mountain ash) to hang over doorways and windows. On the Isle of Man, the youngest child of a family would gather primroses to throw against the door of the house for protection.

From the woods, villagers gathered nine different types of sacred wood. From this wood, two giant bonfires, or need fires, were built on top of a hill. The villagers drove domestic animals between the two fires to purify and protect themselves and the animals, insure their fertility, and bring luck. People also jumped over the bonfires (hopefully after they had died down a bit) in a fertility ritual. In Scotland, boughs of juniper were added to the fire for purification and blessing.

The Beltane celebration honored life over death and celebrated the rebirth of the world. Above all, it was a fertility festival, a symbolic union of the God and Goddess, of the divine masculine and the divine feminine. A young virgin, often dressed in white with a crown of flowers, was chosen to be the Queen of the May. Her consort went by many names, including the Green Man, the May Groom, the May King, and Jack-of-the-Green, often dressed in green and decorated with leaves.

In Scotland, bannocks (or oatcakes), were passed around in a bonnet. One bannock had been blackened by the fire, and the person choosing the blackened bannock became The Fool. It was the hope that all misfortune would henceforth fall on The Fool and no one else. Poor Fool, he also had to jump over the bonfire three times.

After the fires died down, the youth of the village would slip into the woods to go "A-Maying", to act out in reality the symbolic joining of the God and Goddess. No wonder they sing about "The Lusty Month of May" in "Camelot".

May Day morning, the young people would emerge from the woods, perhaps mussed and disheveled, to dance around the maypole, gaily decorated with colorful ribbons, flowers, leaves and garlands. Flowers were put in baskets and left on doorsteps for those who were too ill or too old to participate in the festival. From that, we get our modern day May baskets.

Beltane was serious business for the Gaelic people. They believed that the wheel of the sky would not turn without their intervention, and they did everything in their power - with their fires, celebrations and rituals - to ensure that summer returned each year.

Beltane was celebrated in English villages up into the 1950s. The festivities came to include mummers' plays, Morris dancing, riding the hobby horse, feasting and drinking. Tonight, the Beltane Fire Festival on Colton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland, will attract 12,000 to 15,000 people.

There will be no May bonfires for me, in Edinburgh or Bismarck, and certainly no creeping into the woods to go "A-Maying." Instead, I will look at the nearly-full moon and play "Huron Beltane Fire Dance" by Loreena McKennitt a number of times. Since I can never listen to this music without dancing, I'll do a little springtime dance of my own. Beltane comes only once a year!

For a sample of "Huron Beltane Fire Dance," click on: http://www.quinlanroad.com/explorethemusic/paralleldreams.asp On the right of the screen, under the photo of the "Parallel Dreams" CD cover, click on the audio symbol next to the song title.