May Day - "Bringing in May" - Beltane -
A pagan ritual for the Season -
May 1st

Since ancient times, the end of winter and the return of the sun and the fertility of the soil, has been celebrated in diverse ways as May Day. The Celts and Saxons honored the Celtic God of the Sun, Bel calling their festivities Beltane and peasants all over Europe celebrated this time of fertility, attraction, courtship and love with an eye to eventual harvesting of crops. Celebrations in Europe varied according to locality and were the common peoples celebration until the 19th Century. The day was marked by letting the cows out to pasture after being blessed by protective bonfire smoke.

Usually the celebrations would entail getting up before dawn to collect flowers and leaves to decorate the village. Garlands were made and draped in homes and worn by the girls. Sometimes cows had flowers braided into their tails and they were bedecked with garlands and paraded through the village. The cow and the bee were thought of as forerunners of the land of milk and honey symbolizing good fortune for the village. A pole of birch ( a phallic skyward symbol of life) would be positioned in the village square and decorated with flowers, ribbons and leaves. In some areas the villagers would climb to the top of the hills and mountains, ignite wooden wheels and roll them down into their fields.

When the sun rose, the dancing and singing would begin. A May Queen and King were chosen and decorated with flowers. This couple would reign over the ceremonies and the crops until harvest time. In some areas the King and Queen were named John Thomas and Lady Jane, and in Elizabethan areas and times, they were names Maid Marian and Robin Goodfellow or the Green Man (Robin Hood). Attendant dancers would dance along side of the procession taking the new King and Queen to the Maypole in the Village Square where the festivities began in earnest.

The Queen represented the life of the fields and the King represented the onset of good hunting. The Maypole dancers were usually single men and women hoping to entwine a new love in the streamers or ribbons.

The men sometimes performed the Morris or Morrisco (derived from Moorish) dance costumed in animal-men traditional characters. There was usually three men with white deer antlers, three with black deer antlers, a man-women or "Maid Marian" and a fool. These dancers are still performed in some parts of England. Another custom was to wash your face with May dew in order to restore beauty.

Oatcakes (bannocks) were eaten as part of the festivities. A portion of the cake would be burned and whoever received the marked piece, at one time,  was sacrificed to the gods. This custom changed to the recipient jumping over a small fire 3 times instead. Jumping over fires to show the hoped for height of the coming crops was also a common custom.

In Italy, ancient Rome used to honor the goddess of flowers and spring, Flora, with a festival called Florialia. A statue of the goddess would be decorated with garlands of flowers and carried by a group of singers and dancers past a sacred tree also decorated with flowers. Today flowers are placed in and around places of worship and May Day is known as the happiest day of the year.

In Switzerland, German and Czechoslovakia a  tree or Maypole is often placed under a girl's window the night before Mayday by her sweetheart and she is serenaded.

In England villagers would awake at daybreak on the first of May to collect flowers and leave. A decorated maypole was set up on the village green and the villagers danced and sang around it accompanied by a piper. The Morris dance was performed by dancers wearing bells on their colorful costumes. The fairest maiden of the village was chosen queen of the May. Sometimes a May king was also chosen. These two led the village dancers and ruled over the festivities.  May Day festivals became so gay and wild that the Puritans forcec the government to forbid them. They sprang up again, however, and still continue in many English villages. Today in London children go from house to house exchanging flowers for pennies to throw into a wishing well. After the wishes are made the pennies are collected and given to charitable organizations.

The French considered the month of May sacred to the Virgin Mary and enshrined young girls as May queens in their churches. The May queens led processions in honor or the Virgin Mary. Cows are considered good luck and flowers are tied and draped around their tails as they are led in parades were the people try to touch them. On May Day morning, everyone drinks milk still warm from the milking to assure good luck during the year.

Greek children search for the first swallow of spring early on May 1st. Once found, the children go door to door singing songs in return for fruits, nuts, and cakes.

In the United States the Puritans frowned on May Day so the day was never seen as an important day. Now, May Day is celebrated by dancing and singing around a maypole tied with colorful streamers or ribbons in some schools and in some towns. In some towns children place surprise baskets of flowers on the doorsteps of relatives and friends-- ring the doorbells and run away. At May Day parties queens are selected, children dance around the maypole weaving patterns from the colorful streamers attached to the top of the pole.