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Mayday

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Eiregirl



Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 10230
Location: Chasing a pink bunny
Mayday

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, 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).
The actual Beltane celebration begins on sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always figured their days from sundown to sundown. 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 fires had healing properties, and sky-clad Witches would jump through the flames to ensure protection. 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, repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archery tournaments, Moorish dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.
Some have thought the Beltane celebration was principally a time of '...unashamed human sexuality and fertility.' 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 insistence on sexual monogamy had replaced the older Pagan hand fasting, 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.
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 that 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 perennial 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.

May 1st that is the great holiday of flowers, Maypoles, and greenwood frivolity.

Some of the above were taken from books by D. J. Conway, Jacob Stallybrass and T.W. Rolleston.
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All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.

Post Fri May 02, 2008 4:33 am 
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Cavewoman



Joined: 06 Sep 2005
Posts: 2056
Location: nearby


Hey Eire!
.... thanks for all of this.. its a grand educational voyage and refreshment...
May your pole be blessed.
Razz
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" The sorcerers in life are created within each of us" --- Lynn V. Andrews

Post Sat May 03, 2008 4:49 am 
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luvinmomofone1



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 40
Location: oklahoma usa


thank you for posting that ..i didnt know that and it was every informative and i enjoyed it immenseliy
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Post Sun May 11, 2008 3:21 pm 
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Eilidh
Moderators


Joined: 09 Apr 2005
Posts: 1880


Thanks for posting this, Eire.

I had an interesting experience this year. I have always celebrated Beltaine with my family, but being in a city this year with an extremely active student movement, I heard for the first time discussions regarding job "precariousness", or reversely stated, job "security". Apparently, May 1st is also known as "International Worker's Day", which I had mistakenly equated in my mind with the less political/socialist "Labor Day" celebrated in the US.

Many of the city's unemployed and their allies marched on the streets here to bring awareness to the need for economic and personal peace of mind: to not have to worry about where the next paycheck, the next meal, the next apartment will be. Although the demonstration of 3,000-4,000 participants ended in violence and arrests, the message and intent of worker solidarity was made quite clear.

While I find both interpretations of the holiday important and useful, I'm still trying to reconcile the two side by side. [Hard work --> Fertility?]
I will probably still celebrate the two separately, but I am at least now more informed about their origins.

~Eilidh

Post Tue May 13, 2008 6:36 pm 
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