REL GENRL Happy Beltane - the nice and happy thread where we wish our friends a joyful holiday

Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
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Happy Beltane Even, May Eve, Walpurgis Night or whatever your tradition calls it - in much of Northern Europe this holiday evening was celebrated with huge fires, livestock were run beside or between them for fertility and couples pledged to marry or became in engaged.

A lot of bonfires were planned in Ireland tonight but I don't think too many will actually happen outdoors as the weather is simply not cooperating.

Celebrations will be low-key at our house and probably have to wait until the weekend since husband is at medical school but I'll send him a note to wish him a Happy Beltane Eve and probably light a candle as a symbolic fire. We may do a nice dinner Saturday or Sunday if we get the chance; in many places in the UK (and parts of the US) the Morris Dancers will be up at sunrise to dance in the dawn.

In some European traditions this is the start of the New Year, though for most it is a mid-year celebration. In the far North, like Sweden when we lived there, it is a national holiday but often celebrated with snow, in fact I gather it is snowing right now as one American friend who "married in" is reporting a bit surprised as this is her first time in Sweden for this day.

Germans tend to celebrate this day too as do the Irish (who call it Beltane on the official calendar). Well actually the Day is tomorrow but in many places the celebrations starts with the fires and partying the night before.
 
mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
Well......... I'm sure the folks down south and all along the east coast ain't too sure about this crazy spring weather, but Happy Beltane anyway. Hope things get better.
 

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Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Lovely picture Mz Kitty! The weather is one reason I suspect that most of Northern Europe had back-up "indoor" sites for celebrations or they were just very determined; the year we were in Sweden we had to get our birch twig to bud by bringing it indoors for two weeks by the heater and we slowly drove to the bonfire night at Old Uppsala in the middle of a heavy snow storm. The drifts were three feet high bu the bonfires were massive enough to keep going despite the weather, I stood on one of the smaller mounds, with my cape flying behind me and arms raised in the air as the wind and snow made for something out a movie set.

You can do that with snow, but with lashing rain it isn't so easy and tonight's forecast is lashing rain, I took a photo of our mud covered white Malawolfie earlier, instead of snow white she is mud brown and sopping wet. Any human trying to spend much time outside this evening is likely to look the same; that said it is coming in bursts with pauses inbetween, so really determined folks with really big fires may manage to pull it off.

Of course there was the Beltane Fire I attended about 35 years ago in Mississippi where it was so damp the fire would not light and someone got the "great idea" of dousing it with gasoline, no one was hurt but I learned that it is not only atomic bombs that cause mushroom clouds. We were all pretty muddy but the time we picked ourselves up off the ground where most people threw themselves...
 
Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow

Heathen Pagan Witch
Happy and Blessed Beltane everyone!

No bonfire for us this year. 40mph sustained wind makes that impossible.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Intestinal Fortitude said:
and with May Day being tomorrow, I wonder if Putin will put on a big parade in Red Square.
Click to expand...
Probably, but May Day was around long before 1918 or even Karl Marx, I feel about communism taking over May Day about the same way as I feel about Christians taking over Yule; you can't stop it, so you let people do what they are going to do and enjoy your holiday, each in his own way.

Though I posted on John Galt FLA's facebook page when he mentioned Puntin might do this "Happy Mayday, Yikes" because it does look possible but that's probably for the Ukraine thread...
 
Rattlehead

Rattlehead

did someone say BBQ?
Happy Beltane. The weather will be wonderful for us. While we're not going to have a roaring bonfire, the family will just fine with our fire pit in the back yard. Good excuse for s'mores! :)
 

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mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
Melodi, you have to put it in the little box that is two over to the right from the envelope in the response box (look up a tad), then take the "S" off of HTTPS.

:)


 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
watch

Another Great May Song (from the Elizabethan Period and probably older) also posted to see if I have figured out the video correctly, I'm using the right button but may not have taken off something that needed taking off (that you didn't use to have to do).

Here's the link in case it doesn't work https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZWWEHAswpFI

Dang it, I used the video button, I took off the S and it still isn't working I have no idea why I can't post this stuff anymore it used to work just fine *sigh*
 
H

Halfdar

Cold and pissy
A very blessed Beltane to all..... it has been raining here for two days (although nothing like FL) and we are getting organised to move, so no fires this year.

On the other hand, today is my wife's birthday, which makes Beltane for us a double celebration.

As far as the rain goes, well, anything we don't have to shovel is okay by us.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
OK I will try this again, I did take the s off last time but hopefully the 3rd try will work - a more modern tune that can be sung all year but is often performed in Spring and Summer at festivals

 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Yeah and now that I have this figured out a site you will see all over the UK today especially in rural areas and in many areas of the US (including the Berkeley Hills CJ if it isn't morning yet you can still make it for sunrise in Tilden Park a not to miss!) Morris Dancing has very ancient roots, and while it has prospered during the modern "Pagan Revival" in the UK it is just a traditional part of rural May Day, usually performed in the village square and not especially associated with religion; though it was dying out until recently as something rather "old fashioned." Traditionally only men dance, I had a close friend in Denver in the 1980's who went with the first US group to attend the big once a year Morris Dancing convention in England and there was a huge row because all the American groups had women dancers as well as men, they dressed as men but in the US it is mostly women who do folk dancing so a lot of Morris Dancing troops in the US are largely made up of women (this may have changed, hopefully has). Anyway, my friend came back and told us there were huge arguments and a lot of hurt feelings, but eventually the American groups were allowed to perform but I think were not allowed to compete (at least not that year) however, there is a precedent in the UK for women taking over when the men can no longer dance. This happened with other traditional dances after WWI when entire villages lost ALL their male populations and there is a very haunting song about called "The Ladies Go Dancing At Witson" but those were different dances. Anyway, the US groups have, for the most part, tended to include both genders (but always dressed as men, except for "the Fool" who is often in drag and that was true traditionally in the UK too, he is the one dancing backwards or out of sync) and the UK groups sticking to men only.

Traditional Morris Dancers usually wear bells (to wake up the earth) flags of cloth and often use sticks to pound the ground ...you get the idea lol
 
cwr

cwr

Senior Member
Happy Beltane to all, I vaguely remember May Day being celebrated in England when I was there as a child. I remember the May Pole and all the colors. It was beautiful.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Actually, I remember making May Baskets and dancing a May Ring Dance, age five at a public school in the US (Long Beach, CA) - then the Cuban Crises came and went and so did May Day. I remember asking my Mom why we didn't make May Baskets in school anymore and she said, "because the Commies took it over..."

As an adult, I have no intention of letting that happen and thankfully most of Europe never did; yes it is also a "socialist" holiday over here for some people - you get union parades and in Southern Europe and the East the red scarves come out - but in Ireland and the UK it is mostly the old traditional and folksy customs like Morris Dancing and Green Men; with added touches from the neo-Pagan revival that often simply revive ancient customs were done for thousands of years until the 1970's or so; and like Morris Dancing were in danger of dying out if younger people hadn't reclaimed them.
 
cwr

cwr

Senior Member
When I came back to the states it was all so different. I didn't realize they did May Day here in the states. It was always my favorite.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Friend in Berkeley reports Morris Dancing at Inspiration Point is about to begin and it just finished awhile ago in Toronto Canada...lots of places have revived the old Mummer's Plays too - American's (and even a lot of modern Brits) associate them with Christmas because of "St. George and the Dragon" but they were actually even more popular at May Day. In Tudor and Elizabethan times, it has been argued that May Day was a larger holiday in England that Christmas! And there are tons of May Carols, now largely forgotten except by folk singing groups but again coming back as people remember them and revive the traditions.


The above is more traditional, below is a more neo-Pagan version and also in the UK and I think I know some of these people lol
 
almost ready

almost ready

Inactive
Happy Beltane! And congrats, Melodi, on having the most chilled-out cat ever.

Our barncats would have a thing or two to say if someone tried to put a crown of flowers on one.
 
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