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08 May 01 - 05:58 PM (#458244) Subject: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Hawker Some may say I am just a nosey parker asking all these questions, but this is for a good cause.... my 7-11 year olds folk & Traditions group are looking at May traditions, the question simply is what May traditions do you know about, how do you celebrate Mayday / Beltane / welcome in the summer? I would really be interested to know, and I might find out about ones I didn't know about! Lucy |
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08 May 01 - 06:04 PM (#458251) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Matt_R Well, May is the month dedicated to the Blessed Mother here in the Catholic Church. May Procession songs WOO! This is probably no what you're looking for... |
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08 May 01 - 06:11 PM (#458259) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: MMario They are valid traditions Matt - don't knock your own background! |
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08 May 01 - 06:12 PM (#458260) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Chicken Charlie First off, a bonfire is an absolute must. Actually I believe you need two, as in "Beltane Fires," fairly close together, so you can drive your stock between them and purify them for the coming year. I hate having the dot-com thing at work and my notes at home; if I go off the top of my head I make mistakes, so while you're gathering firewood, I'll check my notes and post tomorrow. CC |
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08 May 01 - 06:23 PM (#458271) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Dave the Gnome Beer, beer and more beer. Oh - and add a bit of Whisky. But then again, that's how I celebrate most things. Guess it aint mch use to 7-11 year olds. Ho hum.... Great for the teacher though:-) Cheers Dave the Gnome |
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08 May 01 - 06:24 PM (#458272) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Hollowfox I've enjoyed dancing around the maypole since I was a kid. Depending on the age(s) and number of kids, they might well enjoy it as well. (I used a coat stand once, in a pinch.) |
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08 May 01 - 06:38 PM (#458283) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: mousethief by waxing the cars. |
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08 May 01 - 06:49 PM (#458292) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Bill D well, you find a couple of Nymphs and a nice clearing in the woods, .....then....ummmm.... |
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08 May 01 - 07:42 PM (#458346) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Micca By processing through the town of Hasting (UK) carrying a 12 foot tall Giant with a lot of others on my shoulders up a hill that rose 1 foot in every 6 feet for about 1/4 of a mile..and drinking a lot |
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08 May 01 - 07:55 PM (#458357) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Clinton Hammond beltain... ummmm... lemme see... fire, be it bonfire, or candles or just pipes and cigarettes... Good food with old friends and older whiskey... songs.. laughter... sex... gifts... more food... You know... all the best things in life... ;-) |
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08 May 01 - 09:27 PM (#458416) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Brían I just went to a party where we danced arund the may pole and did some morris dancing. We played some music and generally gorged our selves and sang songs as well. I must ask my friend Mícheal who grew up in Co. Galway about the Bealtaine Festivals. Brían |
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09 May 01 - 02:56 AM (#458499) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Liz the Squeak By rising at dawn on Mayday, (I did, looked out the window, said Hello to summer and went back to bed....) By washing your face in the Mayday morning dew to make it beautiful (did it when a child, when fell off bike at 18, decided it was never going to work...). By doing what Micca did, but louder and with more cleavage.... (just) and less alcohol.... Oh, green is the colour for May dresses, because it broadcast the fact that you were up for a little horizantal maypole dancing, so that meant that the baby would be born in January/February, when there was least work to be done on the land, and you had time to look out for it, and you wouldn't be too heavily pregnant to help with harvest in August/September. By going to Dorset and looking at the chestnut candles. LTS |
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09 May 01 - 05:32 AM (#458534) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler According to the (UK) press, it looks as if someone celebrated by burning a wicker man that was intended to be permanent! RtS |
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09 May 01 - 05:54 AM (#458538) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler This is the story Ireferred to in my previous post: Wicker man destroyed in arson attack The country's largest willow figure, dubbed the Wicker Man, has been destroyed in an arson attack. The 12-metre tall figure, which stood in a field beside the M5 near Bridgwater, Somerset, was set alight in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The statue, which also became known as the Angel of the South, was created by artist Serena De La Hey and cost £15,000 to construct. Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward, and say they are keeping an open mind as to the reason behind the attack. Miss De La Hey, who built the statue with funding from South West Arts, a local authority and supermarket chain Sainsbury's, said she had been devastated at first on hearing the news. "Lots of things go through your mind, " she said. "There's a degree of anger, why someone should be bothered destroying something like that. "It's such a local project, that it doesn't just affect me. It's become increasingly popular, it's a very positive symbol for Somerset." Public appeal She added that, with support from South West Arts, she hoped to rebuild the statue. But she said there was little more that could be done to protect a replacement from vandalism. "What can we do?" she said. "It's on private land, affected by foot-and-mouth - what do you do, surround it with barbed wire and electrocute people?" The figure, which took three weeks to create, used willow woven over a steel framework and was expected to last around three years. The steel framework survived. Police said they were keeping an open mind as to the reason behind the arson attack. Officers want to hear from anyone with information who used the motorway, especially between junctions 23 and 24. They also hope to trace a cyclist seen riding along the hard shoulder of the M5. (c)BBC News Online RtS
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09 May 01 - 07:24 AM (#458564) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: manitas_at_work May garlands is a good one for kids. You can get them making baskets and posies of paper flowers. There are various incarnations of this. I beleive that in Bampton the children go out early and distribute baskets of flowers and on the Continent you would leave abasket of flowers on the doorstop of someone you fancied,like a Velentine. |
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09 May 01 - 10:09 AM (#458641) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Brían I beleive in Ireland there are traditions surrounding Saint Bríd. I think there are traditions about fire, possibly not throwing out the ashes of fires kindled on that day. I will check with my sources who are people who grew up in the west of Ireland and get back to you. Slán go fóill, Brían |
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09 May 01 - 01:50 PM (#458809) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Liz the Squeak In Abbotsbury they had/have Garland Day, where garlands of flowers are made, processed around the village and thrown into the sea with a prayer from the priest, to ensure a good mackerel harvest. In a book of customs I found, was a picture of my grandmother standing in a boat, with the garland, about to throw it overboard.... Children used to come from all up the Dorset coast for the day, now it seems to have fizzled out. LTS |
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09 May 01 - 02:15 PM (#458830) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: lady penelope For a very short while at primary school, we had a teacher who loved to tell us about different traditions and then get us to do something with them, we happened to do May day and it's the only time I've ever danced round a maypole ( yes it was fun ). Normally, I greet the sun and if I'm in aplace I can get away with it, sing appropriate songs at the top of my voice. Then the eating, drinking, and eerrr.... other things occurr. Hope you have a great May day every year. TTFN M'Lady P. |
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09 May 01 - 02:34 PM (#458854) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Chicken Charlie OK, here goes: Beltane or the feast of Cetshamain was celebrated 1 May. Two great fires were lit, and beasts were driven to grazing between them, thus being purified. The fires had to be "need fires," tein-eigin, generated by sparks from a rotating wheel. This involved the wheel-god Taranis. This custom was followed as late as 1782, per Henderson's Agricultural Survey of Caithness, 1812. Tradition attributes the first Beltane Fire to the druid Mide of the Nemedians, who lit it at Uisneach in County Westmeath, on a spot claimed as the "navel of Ireland." The first BF burned for seven years, and from it all fires in Ireland were supposed to have been lit. Ellis, Druids, 72. The fires are usually explained as solar rituals, perhaps as imitative magic to lure the Sun north. May 1 would seem a bit late for that. Another idea connects the festival with the Pleiades. May and November festivals mark the rising and setting of the Pleiades, a tight group of stars in Taurus. R.J. Stewart, Celtic Gods, 60. In many traditions around the world [yes, R.J, but is this one?], "Each of the Pleiades is allocated a goddess, and these act as matrices ... for the dynamic forces of the Seven Planets. We do not know if this esoteric tradition was ... employed by the ... Celts, but the Pleiades certainly acted as stellar members of great significance in the Celtic year." Op cit, 60. Yet another idea is sipmly that the animals were moved from where they had wintered to the summer pasture, and the fire las lit to magically drive off chill and damp. Now for the pookie-pookie stuff. It is in Scotalnd that the clearest traces of human sacrifice in connection with Beltain have been noted. Evidence for such is also supported by Welsh folklore and hints in Ireland. In all cases the victim was chosen by a variant of casting lots--the designator was the one purposely burnt section of the festival pancake. Ross and Robins, Druid Prince, 36. Going further out, there is the famous story of K. Alfred absent-minded burning the cakes. What if he did it on purpose? What if, driven to desperation by the Norse invasion, he decided that human sacrifice would put things right, and burned the cake to choose the lucky lad? Op cit, 37-8. Equal time from across the aisle: "Human sacrifice was a bogey which Greek writers paraded for occasional enjoyment of self-righteous horror." Forsdyke, Greece Before Homer, 66. "Why, those Celts are such degenerates, they even ...." Sells books, I guess. But there are such widespread attestations. Were it not an awful pun, I would say, "Where there is smoke there is fire." Ugh. Had to laugh at "arsonists" burning the wicker man. How do they know it was vandals? Maybe it was latter day Druids--was the wicker man not purposely made to be burned? The original was supposed to be torched with people inside it. Back to the sources: Belenus or Belenos, one of the oldest Celtic gods, and one associated with livestock, was associated with the BF. Ross calls him Talanos and says he is attested in Noricum, Britanny and Liguria--roughly Austria, Britanny and the Italian Riviera, where any Celtic god with any sense would of course go to pick up chicks. Beltane ceremonies were celbrated in an attenuated form into the twentieth century. Ross & Robins, Druid Prince, 37-38. CC |
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09 May 01 - 02:39 PM (#458860) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Jande This year we watched, from our candle-lit dinner table, an enormous orange Beltaine Moon rise up from the darkling hills and scribe an arc ever so slightly to the south a it gradually turned to gold and then to silver. We both agreed that it was the most magnificent moonrise either of us had ever seen. The two green candles represented for me the Beltaine fires, and promise of fecundity.
Then of course, we fulfilled our duties as Lord and Lady of the Beltaine to ensure that our creative crops are well fertilised.
~ Jande
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09 May 01 - 02:47 PM (#458868) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,petr just came from a beltaine celebration the other week. a fiddle player/archaelogist friend has one out at his house in the country. Its well attended by musicians morris dancers and others. Usually there is a mini play this year it was Orfeus and Euridice followed by a Quest whereby groups of 5 or so walk through a designated trail and encounter the characters from the play. Sometimes its in the woods around the house, this year as it was a descent to Hades the path went throught the garage and basement. You have to learn a little song to get past the various characters and you pay Charon with a little coin that you make from a piece of wood cut into a circle decorated with sparkly bits (to get across the river styx) There is also morris dancing and a maypole dance and plenty of music jamming going on and of course there is a bonfire. Its a potluck and there is usually a 100 people or so. A great time. |
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09 May 01 - 04:16 PM (#458944) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Claymore In our town May Day is the biggest holiday of the year. At noon there is a parade, led by the Mayor in a white suit, carrying a forked stick laced with Lavender, followed by two figures, the Green Man in ivy and deer horns, and the White Unicorn. Next come several groups of Morris dancers and Musicians dispersed between groups, then ususally a couple to be wed. (This year they came in Renaissance dress, as did their party). The Mini-Morris dancers (young girls in frocks) follow, with Border Morris, college girls dressed as the Muses, the Maypole Bearers and Drums completing the Parade. This procession goes to a bluff overlooking the river and sets the maypole. Poems are read and there is an annual musical selection which involves a flute and a diggeredoo (quite beautiful, actually). Next the Green Man begins a clogging rythmn on a low wooden table which is then taken up by the Drummers massed around the green. Several additional cloggers take part in a welcoming of spring. The Mini-Morris do a dance with flower garlands which they give to strangers in the crowd. Then the wedding takes place at the Maypole (this year, Unitarian). Next comes a Renaissance morality play done by a group of young actors from the local college, called the "Rude Mechanicals", which always invoves the children in booing and cheering the participants. Then the Maypole is woven to music, using light green and dark green ribbons for the unattached males, and lavender and dark purple ribbons for the girls. As the dancers move towards each other, weaving in and out, the crowd watches to see the eveness of the weave on the pole, which portends good things. Later there is a Morris Ale, and still later, a potluck dinner and contra dance. All in all, a wonderful day |
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09 May 01 - 07:58 PM (#459108) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Peg what a lot of wonderful celebrations! here's a bit of mine: http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/beltaine/beltainehistory.html I celebrated with a ritual and feast with my coven... Peg |
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12 May 01 - 09:27 AM (#460972) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,Brían My, this is quite an interesting discussion on Beltane. I've been doing a little field research on the subject. Great bit of work, Chicken Charlie.Most of the traditions I came across had to do with wheels and fires. First I'll start with Webster's New World Dictionary: Beltane: (bel' tane) n. [scot. Bullfinch's Mythology goes on to say: The Druids observed 2 festivals in each year.The former took place in the beginning of May, and was called "Beltane" or "Fire of God". On this occasion a large fire was kindled on some elevated spot, in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this custom a trace remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts of Scotland to this day. Sir walter Scott uses the word in the "Boat Song" in the "Lady of the Lake": "Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade;" etc. there, that being said, I'll go on to some of my field research. Last night i spoke with Máirín, the mother of my Irish language teacher. Máirín, who grew up in Lochan Beag, Co.Galway says to be sure fish was brought in so you would have fish for the rest of the year. i asked her if you had to catch the fish. She says no, you could buy it. She says the whole area was dependent on fish. She asked me if I knew what a Súgán was. I said yes, I think its a rope. She said yes, you make a rope with hay and wind it around the (milking)cans so there would be milk for the rest of the year. She does not remember any bonfires. I then went to my teacher, Mary who is Máirín's daughter. Mary says, bringing in fish is very nice, but what do the landlocked people do? I said they must do something else. She says that's right. The traditions are all localised. That explains the wide variations on the traditions noted by the various 'catters. Beltane was a god worshipped all over europe. He seemed to govern round things as well as fire. so therefore on May 1st, don't spin, don't sew, don't turn any wheel, don't make anything round, so don't make any round bread. Don't churn any butter. As for fires, she said not to throw out any ashes until the next day. That's all for Beltane, although I have some great info on Lúnasa which I will save for August. Slán go fóill agus beidh mé ag caint libh aríst, Brían. |
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12 May 01 - 11:43 AM (#461005) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: GUEST,kewl What do we do in the west where there are two seasons Freeze - and then - Boiling
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12 May 01 - 04:29 PM (#461104) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: John Nolan A movie called The Wicker Man is well worth watching. Set on an island off Scotland's west coast, it starred Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland and Edward Woodward. It is a drama packed full of Druidic tradition and well researched according to Margaret Bennett, who worked for the School of Scottish Studies and knows these things. For example, I had been dismissive of an English hobby horse showing up in this Scottish film, but Margaret pointed out that an ancient hobby horse had once been recovered from a Perthshire bog. Anyway, if it's Beltane fires ye want missus, this is the pictur for you. |
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12 May 01 - 06:07 PM (#461149) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: BDenz I've stuck with the Swedish traditions since I lived there. The fires start at full-dark on Beltane eve and burn till the first glimpse of dawn. Over there, the bonfires are huge and each community has one. We keep ours brazier size -- easier to control, just in case. Silk ribbons are entwined around us, and we welcome the dawn nude. Other than that -- mostly what everyone else said. The following came from my favorite jewelry spot on the Web, Gaelsong. "Beltane The Lusty Month of May The sweetest signs of spring have faded, mere innuendoes of the potent force to come. In early February, we searched the frozen ground for snowdrops, Bridget's flowers, the first promise of a new season. By equinox the crocus and early daffodils assured us we could soon let down our guard against winter. And now, we watch for the hawthorn to bloom. When its white blossoms appear, we celebrate Beltane. Its flowers are intoxicating, but not in the way we might expect. They do not invite us closer with delicate perfume, and in fact are unpleasant in scent. But as they open wide on thorned branches, they compel us to take heed. May has arrived and we can not resist life's most alluring seduction. Beltane is an ancient festival, a celebration of life and fertility. It most likely refers to the Celtic god Belenos, a solar deity akin to the Greco-Roman Apollo. In Irish lore, Beltane represents transition. The Tuatha De Danaan, the earliest gods of the land, were believed to have arrived on May Day, descended from dark clouds to rule Ireland for centuries until the Mil, the next invaders, claimed their place as the ancestors of the mortal Irish. Finally, St. Patrick was said to have challenged the Druids by lighting a fire on the Hill of Slane near Tara on Beltane. Fire was very much a part of the ancient rites of Beltane. On the eve of the festival, Druids lit fires on high hills. They burned through the night, invoking the sun's power at dawn, cleansing and blessing the celebrants below. Sacrificial offerings were thrown into the flames. Young men leaped over the fire three times for luck while pregnant women waited to step across and ritually assure an easy birth. Embers were scattered on the sprouting fields and taken home to rekindle fires extinguished before Beltane. Water also played a role in the celebrations. May dew was considered to be a potent agent of fertility and beauty. It nurtured the land and brought vitality to young women who rose before dawn to bathe in the early morning dew. Not surprisingly, the moisture collected from hawthorn trees was deemed the most magical. Many Beltane customs involved sprinkling revelers with water from sacred wells and pools. In Cornwall, it was also known as Ducking Day because boys gleefully splashed water over anyone caught without a sprig of hawthorn. The element of fire is a symbol of passion and heat, of the sun. In many traditions, it embodies the masculine principle. Water on the other hand most often represents the archetypal feminine - the waters from which all living creatures emerge. At Beltane, the tension between the two demands resolution. What ensues is a kind of creative chaos not readily understood or accepted in modern life. We can only begin to imagine the festivals of our distant ancestors: the smoke of the blazing fires, the exuberant celebrations, the men and women who disappeared into forest and field to merge without inhibition. It is no coincidence that midwifery is celebrated at the festival of Imbolc nine months later. For centuries, both church and state restricted May Day activities. Sexual expression, whether overt or symbolic, was regarded as a threat to civil society. At one time, even dancing around a maypole was outlawed. But human spirit and the strong influence of nature prevailed across the centuries. Even if today's May Day celebrations are tame in comparison, they still hearken back to ancient symbolism of fertility and exuberance. So, as the hawthorn blooms, create your own May Day celebration. Surrender to the pulsating vitality of Beltane, indulge your senses. Go, as Lerner and Low suggested, merrily astray. May Wine *1 bottle white wine (non-alcoholic wine is a fine substitute) *Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon *Fresh organic strawberries, preferably wild *Bunch of fresh woodruff (dried for two days in a well-covered china bowl) or green-dried whole woodruff leaves Method 1.Add 1/3 bottle wine to the woodruff leaves. 2.Allow to steep for 1 hour. 3.Filter and add remaining wine. Flavor with lemon juice and rind. " |
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12 May 01 - 09:18 PM (#461213) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Hawker Thank you all so much for your input! I am sure that I have lots there for the children to enjoy (apart from the fertilisation bits) I love hearing others experiences, it is so much more interesting than reading a bland report in a book of traditions, it brings them to life! My second cousin was researching our family tree and she found thisaccount written by a relative in 1884: "Slingsby is a village in the North Riding Yorkshire. It has a lofty mayopole which is taken down sometimes in May to get painted. The last one was got out of Slingsby wood, and when they were bringing it, the brass band met them in the Sheepwalk seven or eight years ago. There is also a tale told about a serpent which was a mile long, it used to live on the side of Malton Road in a field called 'The Pot Field' and one of the Knights of Wyville went to kill it with his dog. In the church there is an image of a man with his legs crossed, which is said to be him." There is also another Maypole story in the family of another relative, Robert William Topham, 1869 to 1900, as recounted by his grandson, as told him by his father:"The rope to the top of the Maypole broke just before it was wanted. They got the longest ladder they had, then Rob. climbed the rest. It was fairly high and about half way up, his trousers started to work up over his knees, so hanging on by his armshe shook out his legs. It was said that a womanfainted, thinking he was falling. The climb seems to be a feat long remembered in the village. The storytellers cousin, Leslie Topham tells that in 1975 when a new maypole was being erected, Robert Topham, (son of Robert William), and his wife were invited to take part in the celebrations. They were away, so Leslie and his wife went over and were made very welcome. It seemed Rob's feat had passed into the folklore of the village" It is not clear which village they are refering to, but I know Leslie Lived in Harrogate and the surrounding area, so I guess it would be around there somewhere! Back then I believe that did not have ribbons tied to the to as we do now to dance round with, they were just danced around. Thank you all for sharing you info with me, hope my little family snippets will be of interest to you! Lucy |
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13 May 01 - 10:58 AM (#461381) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Peg John Nolan, yes indeed The Wicker Man is a worthwhile film! And has an excellent score with beautiful songs that I bet a lot of Mudcatters woudl appreciate... Peg
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13 May 01 - 02:46 PM (#461490) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Maryrrf I spent Beltain in Glastonbury as planned. I didn't go to the hyped-up celebration on the tor, but found people of like mind with whom to celebrate it quietly. It was wonderful and meaningful! |
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13 May 01 - 02:54 PM (#461492) Subject: RE: Help: May / Beltane - how do you celebrate From: Les from Hull The whaling ships of Hull in the 1700s and 1800s hoised a May Garland to the masthead, bedecked with ribbons. This stayed there throughout the voyage and boys of Hull would leap on board the ship as it docked and race up the mast for the garland (the winner got to keep it). So it seems that May Day was celebrated even at sea. Les |