Today the Celtic world celebrates the festival day of Beltane. It is a cross-quarter day marking the beginning of summer in the ancient calendar. In addition, it's one of two "turning" days of the year that are exactly six months apart. The corresponding day in the fall is Samhain, the festival marking the beginning of the dead season of winter. In preparation for the festival families would decorate their houses, farms, and livestock with greenery. Celebrations would begin on the evening of April 30 with the lighting of bonfires, dancing and feasting long into the night. On the day itself celebrants would gather to welcome the rising sun and select both the May Queen or earth goddess representing fertility and the May King or Green Man representing vegetation and growth. In a fertility rite local youth would perform a Maypole dance, then rejoin their families for more feasting.
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| May Pole Dance, Bascom Hill, Wisconsin, May 1, 1917 |
Here in the United States these days there isn't much associated with the day except for the opportunity to buy something under the "May Day Sale" label. Even schools don't have much interest in May Day as a spring festival. That wasn't the case in my elementary school in the 1950's where the celebration was a day-long festival that attracted the attention of the entire community. I think the enthusiasm was fueled by the large majority of Irish, Welsh, Scots, and English ancestry only recently removed from the old countries. Regardless, the holiday was so important that I recall teachers having us outside some weeks early to practice the May Pole dance and its lattice work to perfection. I wonder how enthusiastic they would have been had they known we were practicing a fertility rite.
Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
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