Celts, Romans, Unions and Queens: All about May Day
Plus phallus facts and how to party like a pagan for Beltane. And a writing prompt!
The Cauldron is a reader-supported publication featuring curious occult history and mythology, with artful nudes from SF-based photographer and mysterious gentleman Jose de los Reyes. See more of his work on Instagram.
May Day is the First of May! That’s Today!
The celebration of May Day is widely believed to go back to ancient Rome and the festival of Floralia, a sexy weeklong event honoring Flora, goddess of youth, spring, and flowers. Romans danced around with blossoms in their hair and then at the end of it all, they let animals loose in the Circus Maximus, while symbolically tossing beans and lentils over the crowd, much like throwing handfuls of rice at newlyweds today.
Around the same time of year, the Romans also celebrated the fertility goddess Bona Dea. Her festival was by women, for women, and involved the ritual sacrifice of a sow.
The ancient Greeks saw the phallus as a fertility symbol, a guardian boundaries, and a ward against the evil eye. Laughing at said symbolic dicks was good luck. The phallus also represented Dionysus, god of wine and frenzy. During some Dionysian rituals, a phallus-bearer lugged around a larger-than-life ceremonial penis. Fittingly, among Dionysus’s groupies were the satyrs—randy, rapey half-men, half-goat beings.
Beltane
Across the sea on the British Isles, the Celts had their own May fertility rite, though it was a comparatively more austere affair.
To mark the beginning of summer, which occurred somewhere between the end of April and May 5, in accordance with an agrarian calendar, the Celts herded their cattle through two bonfires, both to purify the beasts, and ensure their fecundity. Supposedly the Celts also danced around a pole, a stand-in for a phallus, but it’s more likely it was a tree. This ancient festival is called Beltane, meaning “blazing fire.” Many sources claim “Beltane” derives from the Celtic god Belenus, the bright one.
With the arrival of the Romans in Britain, it’s possible the festivities of Beltane and Floralia merged.
In Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Walpurgisnacht is celebrated on April 30. Officially, it’s about a saint named Walpurga, but in history (and practice), it’s more about banishing winter spirits and malevolent forces. Swedish celebrations involve folk music and bonfires, while Germans put on costumes and play pranks, or offer phantom hounds ankenschnitt—slices of bread with butter and honey.
In Finland, Walpurgis Night and May Day have combined into a celebration called Vappu, a raucous festival of renewal and rebirth that involves drinking, costumes, and balloons. Vappu welcomes summer and lets go of darkness.
How May Day went from cultic to communist
By the Middle Ages, May Day was a ubiquitous European celebration: imagine a town decorated with flowers to “bring in the May,” village youths darting about, playing games, enjoying pageants and dancing. At the center of it all is the maypole, usually cut from birch. Dancers gripping colorful streamers wind them ‘round the pole.
The Europeans weren’t the only ones performing ribbon dances. A similar practice originated in India and pre-Columbian Latin America.
Maypoles were briefly outlawed during the English Civil War, then popped back up when the Stuart monarchy regained power in 1660. But the Church wasn’t too thrilled about May Day.
Neither were the New England Puritans. When an Anglican merchant named Thomas Morton erected a maypole on the Merry Mount plantation in 1627, officials from a nearby Puritan town broke up the party, emasculated the maypole, and promptly shipped Morton back to England. Morton’s tale inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story “The May-Pole of Merry Mount.”
In the US, May Day fell out fashion for a bit. Then xenophobic American intellectuals brought it back to the mainstream in the late 1800s as a ploy to assimilate immigrant and migrant workers into elevated American culture, lest they fall prey to cheap, frivolous amusements, like carnivals. The horror!
The Egyptian fertility god Min is the manliest of deities, depicted with a large, erect penis and a flail in his right hand. His sacred plant is a lettuce that emits a semen-like juice. Statues of Min blessed fields and received offerings of the the first fruits of the harvest. Min’s mythlogy includes secret sex with his mother, through which he sires himself. At the festival of Min, the queen of Egypt would take on the role of Min’s mother.
Elite young ladies attending women’s colleges were integral to May Day’s revival. They donned white costumes, performed folk dances, and even reenacted the tale of Thomas Morton and his maypole mayhem. Many a May Queen were also crowned. To this day, communities across the US and Europe still select their May Queens every year.
Meanwhile, labor leaders were advocating for May 1 to become a holiday honoring workers. On May 1, 1867, more than forty unions in Chicago took to the streets to celebrate the passage of an eight-hour labor law. The next day, thousands of workers went on strike.
But the 1867 law was never enforced. Almost twenty years later, on May 1, 1886, more than 30,000 Chicago workers launched a strike. Laborers in other cities marched in solidarity. During a strike on May 3, Chicago police killed at least two people. The next day, laborers staged a protest in Haymarket Square, where a protester lobbed a bomb at the police. One officer died and others were injured. May 1 became synonymous with the “Haymarket incident,” a symbol to the pearl-clutching public of radicalism and anarchist violence.
Sixty-six countries celebrate May 1 as a labor holiday. But Americans celebrate Labor Day: established as a federal holiday in 1894 by President Cleveland, Labor Day is held in September in order to eliminate any socialist association.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, folks assembled May baskets filled with flowers and small gifts, and hung them on the doorknobs of neighbors, sweethearts, and loved ones. Many sources cite Beltane as the root of May baskets, same as maypoles. In 1925, two children hung a May basket on the front door of the White House. Supposedly, First Lady Grace Coolidge thanked them with hand-picked flowers.
Does your school or community still put up a maypole? Tell us about it in the comments!
Party like a Neo Pagan
The contemporary Beltane is a sexy celebration, with Wiccan influences. This is a night for ritual sex, including the Great Marriage, a reenactment of the union between god and goddess.
In Wicca, the May Queen must overcome the Queen of Winter, aka the Dark Mother, in order for summer to be born. Then the May Queen unites with the the Green Man of the Woods.
At heart, the Green Man is a plant god. Many associate him with Jack in the Green, the May King, and John Barleycorn. Some claim the Green Man has ancient origins, others that he’s a more recent invention. FWIW, you can find his face on very old churches all over the UK. Many believe his visage is the work of subversive stonemasons. Either way, he’s a notable figure today, a symbol of fertility, growth, and renewal.
Established in 1988, the biggest and best-known Beltane event in the world is The Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, a self-described “living, dynamic reinterpretation and modernisation of an ancient Iron Age Celtic ritual.” Thousands attend each year. (Read more in Atlas Obscura or on Lonely Planet.)
It’s possible there are Beltane festivities in your area. I know we have quite a few here in Michigan, where witchcraft and paganism gained an early foothold, just as in California. But you can also celebrate on your own. Here’s how…
Celebrating Beltane
Light It Up
Gather friends for a bonfire, set a fire in your hearth, or just light some candles. On scraps of paper, write down the things you’d like to shed from your life and burn them to ash.
The Fairy Lewk
Adorn yourselves, darlings. Green is typical, but white garb or floral prints work too, as do shades of pink and red. And if it’s silky or diaphanous, it’s in. And put on your best jewels. Don yellow and white flower crowns if you’re crafty like that. Your local florist can probably make you one, or try Etsy. Or you could stick a flower behind your ear, in your braid(s), or tuck it in your cap.
Adorn your space: fill your home with fresh bouquets. This lovely blog recommends picking wildflowers to decorate doorways and windows.
Decorate a May tree: thorn trees are best, but any nearby tree will do. Tie paper ribbons to the branches and add dried flowers or other biodegradable offerings. I suggest apples or berries, or maybe some sugar-free oat cakes for the birds.
Feast
Enjoy, rich, sweet, honey-glazed foods. (Dandelion syrup is a good vegan substitute for honey, btw.) Eat fruit and fresh greens and cheese. Bake oat cakes with honey. Show someone you care by sharing your feast, or make them a May basket.
Honestly, eat whatever you want, as long as you savor it.
Drink Up
A fruity wine or any kind of floral cocktail will also do nicely. If you have some old but still edible fruit lying around, make a simple syrup out of it. Then add vodka, white rum, or gin, some citrus, and shake it on ice.
Sex It Up
Ideally, get sexy in the wilderness, with yourself, or your partner(s). If you don’t live somewhere remote though, you could always light some candles and put on some woodsy music, maybe lay out some flowers, faux fur, and open the window to the moon.
If you’re planning to conceive, some say Beltane babies are lucky.
Writing Prompt
The curious case of the missing maypole.
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