Welcome! May Day, Beltane 2015

Today is May 1st. What a wonderful day to start my new blog, "My Magic Circle". May Day (Beltane) has been celebrated by pagans for many centuries. Welcome Spring and Sunshine! This is the time of new beginnings!

Yesterday, Google's logo announced the celebration of Labour Day (or International Worker's Day). Here in the U.S. we celebrate Labor Day in September, so I had to look up the reason for the logo design. Apparently it is a day to commemorate trade union and labor movements of the late 1800's. It falls on May Day each year. 

Mayday originated in Pagan Europe and it was a holiday for the working class, and a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting. 

The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane. The Celtic god of the sun was Bel. So, translated Beltane means "day of sun fire". For them, the day started at sunset, so the feasting, games, and celebrating started at sundown on April 30th. It was the end of winter and the return of the sun and fertility of the soil. It was a celebration of the season by lighting fires, dancing and singing.

These May Eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by the Catholic Church, but was still celebrated up until the 1700's. (mostly by peasants and villagers in small towns where the Church had little influence.) 

"While good church going folk would shy away from joining in the celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority would don animal masks and various costumes, not unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God; Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of the witches."

From The Origins and Traditions of Mayday by Eugene W. Plawiuk.

The Celts celebrated Beltane throughout the middle ages with a similar god and goddess of the hunt, but as European peasants became more agricultural and less hunter/gatherer, so did their god and goddess. Diana became Queen of the May, representing the cycle of the fields, and Herne became the Green Man (or in some cultures, Robin Goodfellow - a predecessor of Robin Hood) representing the woods and the hunt. In later celebrations, a young woman was chosen from the village to represent the May Queen, ruling over the crops until harvest.

Photo Credit: Pete Ashton https://www.flickr.com/photos/peteashton/

The Maypole is a myriad of male and female symbols representing the God and Goddess. The pole itself is a phallic symbol. The wreath at the top represents the female vagina, and as the ribbons wind around the pole, the wreath lowers, representing the Divine Sexual Union of God and Goddess. The pole itself was a fir tree with its branches stripped (all but the very top). The custom of dancing around it was an ancient fertility rite, for young girls and women. Usually the Yule tree was saved and used as the Maypole. The wreath was created from greenery and the first blooms of the season.

As with many of the Pagan traditions and celebrations, the Christian church adopted them and integrated them into their own doctrine in order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'. And so they became Saint Days.

The May Queen became a celebration of the Virgin Mary. Many cultures, especially in Europe, still celebrate May Day with the election of a May Queen, and dancing around a May Pole.