May Day

May Day is exactly a half-year from November 1, All Saints' Day. Marking the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, it has always been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the political or religious establishment.

"The advent of the merry month of May was a time of great celebration, when summer was welcomed by men blowing on cow-horns. Girls rose early to bathe their faces in the May morning dew, which was held to have curative and beauty properties. Blankets soaked in May dew were thought to be able to cure sick children wrapped in them. Wells were able to grant wishes on May Day. ... (But) Fairies are abroad today so don't leave your baby unattended lest it be kidnapped and replaced by a changeling. ~~Brian Day in A Chronicle of Folk Customs

Many May Day revelers celebrate the season by dancing around a wooden May pole. It's an old Celtic custom which symbolizes Spring and the fertility of nature.

forget that they believed in tree spirits. When you say knock on wood, that's an old, old Celtic custom that says 'tree spirit, come out and give me luck.' And they very much believed in the power of these tree spirits and it was quite a ritual to the young men to go out and collect the tree and to bring it back and to decorate it. And they would have a very structured dance around the May pole. ~~Jim Metzner from Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History

Verna Gates, a Special Instructor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, tells us that, just as we do do today, the ancient Celts would tie strips of cloth to the top of the May pole, weaving the fabric into braids as they danced.

"Weaving was a very important aspect of the May celebrations. You would weave the ribbons because you can take two strands of something and make another element out of it. And that's what you were doing in fertility was taking two and making three. And so they would dance around the may pole and some said that that was a time of courtship. You didn't marry in May, but you started the courtship in May and you married at Halloween."

Beltain is the third and last of the spring festivals. It is a Cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun's progress between the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice. The astronomical date for this midpoint is slightly later, around May 5 depending on the year.

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