“What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

Here are some quotes from the press, and from fellow modern Pagans, on the holiday.

“It is Beltane! The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. Merriment calls!” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

“A sex ban imposed on performers before last year’s Beltane Fire Festival has had an unexpected, and happy, consequence – a baby born exactly nine months later. Rupert Smith, who was playing the part of a Red Man, during the fiery pagan event last year, celebrated the lifting of the ban with his partner – who just happened to be May Queen Fenella Hodgson – after returning from the Calton Hill festivities. The result was son Reuben, now three months old, and, for his efforts, Rupert has now been promoted to the leading role of the Green Man – the May Queen’s betrothed – this year.” - Catherine Salmond, Edinburgh Evening News

“May Day roots go back a long way. For Gaelic peoples it was celebrated as Beltane. Germanic tribes observed it as Walpurgisnacht. In the Middle Ages, the English would erect maypoles and hold “Morris” dances. Some typical ways May Day is celebrated is by crowning a May Queen, putting up a maypole and making May Day baskets and leaving them on the doors of your neighbors, friends and family members. In the late 19th century, May Day became a symbol of the achievements of the labor movement (which brought you the two-day weekend, the eight-hour work day and a minimum wage), and was celebrated as “Labor Day.” Cold War politics rescheduled America’s Labor Day. It is interesting to note Beltane and Walpurgisnacht both use bonfires as part of the celebration. Fires protected the people from spirits and purified the land for a good growing season. It reminds me a bit of prairie burning.” – Regina Murphy, The Emporia Gazette

“I will be back to celebrate the dawn on May 1, arriving well before dawn at Berkeley’s Inspiration Point in Tilden Park.  There, every year, in no matter what the weather, Berkeley Morris performs Morris dances to ‘bring up the sun’ and honor the day.  I have always felt something almost primordially right about this way of celebrating the dawn and the beginning of this season. I remember one year during a ferocious downpour they danced in the puddles and a decent crowd of us stood under umbrellas to honor them and the date.  More often they dance as the light gradually grows until the sun breaks through on the far eastern horizon, bathing us in its gentle light.  When the weather is decent, and it usually is, hundreds show up.  Not all are Pagans, but they are certainly Pagans at heart, honoring the turning of wheel, the sacredness of this day, and the warmth of community.” – Gus diZerega, A Pagan’s Blog

“Despite its modern links to Christianity, Valborgsmässoafton, which has been celebrated in Sweden since the Middle Ages, is one of two Swedish holidays which still resemble their pre-Christian merrymaking. The other is Midsummer. The original pagan festival heralded the onset of the growth season. It attempted to ward off evil, ensure fertility and cleanse the land of the dried and dead of winter. Today, it is still the accepted gateway to long and warmer days.” – Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius, The Local

“Long before it was a code word for distress or a major holiday of the Soviet Bloc, May Day was a pagan ritual celebrating the arrival of spring. That primal, earth-mother definition drives the Phillips neighborhood’s May Day parade, one of the Twin Cities’ most visually spectacular festivals and a kickoff to Minnesota’s all-too-short warm-weather months. The parade’s most striking feature is the gigantic puppets built by local kids and neighborhood groups…” – Decider Twin Cities

“There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and the modern Witches’ calendar, as well. The two greatest of these are Halloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day (the beginning of summer). Being opposite each other on the wheel of the year, they separate the year into halves. Halloween (also called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs a close second. Indeed, in some areas—notably Wales—it is considered “the great holiday”. “ – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

“What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.


Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

“We celebrate the new crops coming in, celebrating initiation and fertility. It is a sharing of Appalachian traditions. West Virginia is among the most Appalachian of the states. A lot of the traditions that were here tonight were celebrated here not even a hundred years ago.” – George Fain, president of Marshall University Pagan Association

“On the night itself, hundreds of performers lead a fire-lit procession around [Calton Hill]. They move through a fire gate and round points representing earth, air, water and fire. The festivities reach a climax when the Green Man, a symbol of the first growth of summer, arrives and is crowned by the May Queen.” – Martin Couper, The Edinburgh Evening News

“Beltane, meaning bright fire, is one of the four Celtic cross-quarter festivals celebrating the changing of seasons. ‘People have, as far as we can tell, [always] celebrated the changing of the seasons,’ Dr. Robin Larsen, co-founder and director of the Center for Symbolic Studies says. Beltane, an ancient festival typically celebrated on the last two days of April and the first two days of May is a time to awaken the earth’s spirit to get ready for spring. ‘March doesn’t feel so spring like,’ Larsen says. ‘When you get to the end of April you’re really there and you know summer is coming.’” – Tara Quealy, Chronogram Magazine

“Each year, in the evening of April the 30th, Swedes and Finns celebrate Saint Walpurgis, one of the most popular festivities during the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer. Walpurgis Night receives the name of “Valborg” in Sweden and “Vappu” in Finland, and is a very lively celebration where people spend the night together and sing traditional songs to welcome spring.” – Scandinavica.com

“Thursday is May Day, which, depending on your leanings, is a pagan pole-dancing holiday, a day of labor solidarity against The Man, a day off for immigrants and their supporters, or some combination of all three, a grab-bag of un-American activity. (To the latter group, Happy Law Day!)” – Swati Pandey, Los Angeles Times

“The festival of May Day (May 1st) has been widely celebrated for centuries, even millennia. Essentially a seasonal and floral festival concerned with the spring rebirth of vegetation after its death in winter, it is a festival of all things green in nature … our modern May Day holiday has a rich past, redolent with symbolism and meaning. Whether we take a deep historical view, or whether we just have fun in the sun, May Day (Beltaine) is one of the key turning points of the ritual year.” – Rob Tillett, Astrology on the Web

“The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. We have survived!” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

“Perhaps it’s just as well that you won’t be here tomorrow, to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations here.” – Lord Summerisle, “The Wicker Man”

Next week, thanks to a quirk of the calendar, one of the biggest religious festivals within modern Paganism will coincide with the yearly National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer, in theory a time for all Americans of faith to unite and pray (in their own manner) for the well-being of the country, has long been co-opted by conservative Christian evangelicals who operate a “task force”. This group (essentially run by Focus on The Family) runs the bulk of NDP events, and excludes non-Christians from active participation.

“The National Day of Prayer Task Force was a creation of the National Prayer Committee for the expressed purpose of organizing and promoting prayer observances conforming to a Judeo-Christian system of values. People with other theological and philosophical views are, of course, free to organize and participate in activities that are consistent with their own beliefs. This diversity is what Congress intended when it designated the Day of Prayer, not that every faith and creed would be homogenized, but that all who sought to pray for this nation would be encouraged to do so in any way deemed appropriate. It is that broad invitation to the American people that led, in our case, to the creation of the Task Force and the Judeo-Christian principles on which it is based.”

Sounds reasonable, right? Can’t the non-Christians throw their own party? The problem is that the NDPTF bills itself as the “official” site for the National Day of Prayer, and attacks any governor who won’t support their efforts with an official proclamation. In addition, Christian coordinators who attempt to throw an inclusive event under the NDPTF auspices are barred from running future events. So JewsOnFirst is calling for citizens to lobby their governors to shun the NDPTF, and either not issue a proclamation, or issue an inclusive statement that doesn’t empower such a narrow view of acceptable public prayer (or crib talking points from Focus on the Family).

“The National Day of Prayer has been hijacked! What began in 1952 as President Truman’s declaration of a National Prayer Day for all Americans is now excluding and dividing us on religious lines. The “Task Force” excludes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and even mainline Christians from participation in the events it coordinates around the country. Many of those events are staged in government venues with elected officials, in a deliberate affront to the separation of church and state.”

You can find contact information for your governor, here. You can find a sample telephone script and sample letter on the inclusive prayer day site. You can also find a listing of proclamations already issued.

Let’s hear it for inclusive prayer!

While I encourage my readers to participate in this call for inclusiveness, I think the fact that the National Day of Prayer falls on May Day/Beltane is far too good an opportunity to pass up! If there is a NDP event being held at your state capitol, why not take a gaggle of Pagans and Heathens in their best May-finery? Or why not hold an event as near as possible to the “official” NDPTF-organized shin-dig? Imagine May-poles and hobby-horses prancing while the evangelicals studiously pray against gay marriage. If the NDPTF is given a government building to hold their meeting, demand one for a really inclusive gathering! Invite anyone who’ll show up! Pray to your assorted gods and goddesses!


We’re a deeply religious people.

If all else fails, hold a procession past the capitol reminding the lawmakers that a “National Day of Prayer” includes all faiths, not just the ones with the political clout to co-opt it for their own ends. When a prayer event hijacked by conservative Christians falls on May Day, who knows what could happen!

“What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, and Walpurgis Night. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.


Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

“The Beltane Fire Festival celebrates the heritage of Gaelic history, and marks the blossoming of spring and fertility. The name Beltane is thought to have derived from a Celtic word meaning “bright fire”; the fire represents the sun burning away the winter darkness, and the community pass through it to be purified and circle it for good luck.” – Lindsay Corr, The Scotsman

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

“May Day customs include: walking the circuit of one’s property (“beating the bounds”), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney sweeps and milkmaids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.” – Mike Nichols, A Celebration of May Day

“Dancing was a common way to celebrate the season. The Maypole rites being an obvious example, but before this practice became widespread, dancing without benefit of a giant pole was also common. Dancing round the bonfires was seen as a way to partake of the purification of its flames. Women wanting to get pregnant would perform fertility dances at the fireside. Once the Beltane fires were relit on the hillsides, villagers would carry a flaming torch, the “need-fire, ” back to their homes and relight their hearthfires with it. On the way, it was customary to dance and sing the season in.” – Peg Aloi, You Call it May Day, We Call it Beltane

“Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend. Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty. Dress in bright colors. Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within. On May Eve, bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck. Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.” – Selena Fox, Beltane

“I’m sorry if I omitted anyone’s favorite rite of Spring. They are too numerous to list. No matter if you celebrate Easter, Passover, Beltaine or Ridvan, I send you a wish for happiness and re-birth. Now is a good time to remember how similar we are – Christian and Jew, Buddhist and Pagan. I wish you all, ‘Blessed be.’” – Adele Elliott, The Commercial Dispatch

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.