May 1, or "May Day", has been celebrated around the world for a very long time. Early observances were likely derived from the spring festivals of ancient Babylon, Egypt and India, which is often the case. However, today its celebrations more closely resemble those of its pagan European origins.
The month of May is named after the Greek fertility goddess Maia, considered the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. She was the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Like many old world festivals, it celebrated fertility and developed into a type of “agrarian magic” to bless the first spring planting. The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane, a fire festival. The word 'Beltane' originates from the Celtic God 'Bel', meaning 'the bright one' and the Gaelic word 'teine' meaning fire.
During a time where societies were hunter-gatherer, evening celebrations on the night before May Day included people chanting and singing, blowing hunting horns, and lighting bonfires. This was sometimes led by a person dressed as Diana, Goddess of the Hunt, with someone else dressed as the horned god, Herne.
As time passed and society turned more agrarian, Diana and Herne came to be seen as fertility deities of the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the May, believed to be the origin of the modern tradition of pageant and festival queens. Herne became Robin Goodfellow, seen as a predecessor of Robin Hood, also known as the Green Man. The Green Man was a protective woodland spirit. He can be seen on many pieces of folk art as well as church decoration, even today.
An iconic symbol of May Day has been the Maypole, an important part of the festivities, though scholars debate about its origin and meaning. Some say it represents an Axis Mundi, the world's center or a connection between Heaven and Earth. Others say its roots are in traditional Germanic reverence of sacred trees. Some believe it could have originated from the Roman’s worship of the god Priapu and is a phallic symbol. According to some anthropologists, the explanation for the Maypole is that of simply symbolizing the growth of new vegetation.
Regardless of its origin, the Maypole tradition still takes place in many areas around the world, as do a number of diverse celebrations to usher in springtime.
Best wishes to all on this first day of May!
So I wanted to share a little Easter history with everyone but I wanted to do something a little different than just focus on the pagan origins of the holiday itself. Often people focus on the origin of the name of the holiday, etc. I thought instead, it would be interesting to take a look at the common tradition of the Easter Basket. There have been many cultural adaptations and interpretations of this custom, but all somewhat related.
What are the origins of giving baskets of fake grass, eggs and candy? Why a basket?
It was an ancient pagan custom that in the spring, people would offer baskets of seedlings to the fertility goddess Eostre (or Oestre) hoping to increase the chances of a good harvest. Also the goddess Eostre was often depicted carrying eggs in a basket, signifying fertility and new life.
The basket was used to symbolize a bird’s nest so people would decorate it to resemble one even more by adding a bed of grass to the bottom. Then, eggs would be added to the nested basket to look more realistic.
These ideas, among others, were adopted by the early Catholic Church. For instance, it was also traditional for people to fast before the Spring Equinox. By doing this, they hoped to redirect their energy into the seedlings so that the harvest would be more successful. This was an idea that inspired Lent. After a long fast during Lent, Easter offered a welcome feast to celebrate its passing. This desire to celebrate by feasting on previously abstained goodies led to the basket tradition.
The Christian adaptation of the Easter Basket revolved around the custom of Blessing the Family Baskets. This is when every family would bring a basket of food that they had commonly abstained from during Lent, to Mass on Easter Sunday. It would then be blessed for an Easter feast. In the basket would be items such as red wine, salted meats like ham, dairy, eggs, and eventually candy. This tradition is still observed in more Orthodox households. It is sometimes called the Pascha or Paschal Basket.
The more commercialized Easter baskets of today have ditched the religiously symbolic foods in favor of just eggs and/or candy, as the world has become more secularized (and sugar loving!). Still, many families will spend today feasting and observing the joy and new life of the spring season, provided to the world by the glory and miracle of the risen son/sun.
Happy Easter!!!!!
♥ Happy Lupercalia! ♥
As with many modern holidays, it is widely theorized by scholars that the true origins of Valentine’s Day is actually steeped in a very ancient Roman pastoral fertility festival, observed on February 13 through 15. The festival was called Lupercalia.
The belief was that the goddess Juno Februata (where the name February comes from) inflicted her "love fever" on the youth. Lupercalia “festivities” involved an orgy and sexual excesses, the sacrifice of goats and dogs, and the burning of salt meal-cakes prepared by the Vestal Virgins. Young men would randomly pick love notes of eligible young women from a container, after which they would try to guess who wrote the notes. Another practice was to smear the foreheads of youths with the blood of a sacrificed dog and goat and send them off with a priest around the perimeter of the city, whipping women along the way with strips of the goat’s skin. This act was to protect the women from infertility.
For years the Christian church tried to suppress the festival of Lupercalia. Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia from the 15th to the 14th and renamed it after the legendary St. Valentine in an attempt to redefine the pagan celebration. Even after the church replaced Lupercus with St. Valentine, the Lupercalia festival continued relatively unchanged except for the sexual excesses.
Though much has changed since the days of Lupercalia, in elementary schools across the country, children still put concealed notes in a box much as the ancient Romans did. Some traditions are well worth keeping!
