Beltane

May 1st

Symbol: the Green Man

Green Man (© Helixtree)

Beltane is the old name for May Day, the first day in May, and Beltane Eve is celebrated on April 30th. Beltane is one of the few pagan festivals that has not been Christianised or altered to fit into modern society (such as Imbolc becoming Candlemas and Samhain becoming Hallowe’en). Today all over Britain, Europe and many other parts of the world, traditional May Day customs are still practiced.

At Stonewylde, Beltane is one of the most important festivals of the eight. Celebration of the fecundity of Mother Earth, represented by the May Queen, and the fertility of the male impregnating spirit, anthromorphasised in the Green Man is the central theme. Magus always represents the Green Man, and is painted from head to toe with green pigment, even in his silvery hair. He wears a green costume sewn with real leaves and a headdress of woven foliage. The May Queen, a nubile girl of sixteen either Villager or Hallfolk, is chosen to be his partner. She wears a white dress of the very finest Stonewylde linen, tight in the bodice and flaring into gauzy skirts that skim her calves. On her head she wears a headdress of woven hawthorn blossom and bluebells, and after spending Beltane Eve in the woods with the Green Man, she leaves this headdress under a tree as a sort of shrine to Beltane.

Beltane at Stonewylde begins in the Stone Circle on Beltane Eve. The great standing stones have already been painted, each one depicting the foliate face of a green man, highlighted with gold. The great bonfire has been prepared, and the brazier installed on the May Sister. This is a special standing stone aligned to the May Day sunrise, and the Bel Fire is kept alight all day from sunrise to sunset on top of the stone.

On Beltane Eve, just before sunset, the people of the community gather in the Stone Circle wearing their normal ceremonial robes, and the children their tunics. To the sound of drumming and flutes, the people make their way up the Long Walk, lit by lanterns in between the waist high stones that line the processional way. Once inside the great Circle, as the sun goes down, Magus and the young girl appear from the oak woods surrounding the stones. The bonfire is lit, its flames flaring blue and green, and the ceremony begins. The spirit of the Green Man is invoked, invited to preside over the festival and bring his fertility and virility to the proceedings.

The drumming and chanting continue until every body inside the circle reverberates, with the heartbeat of Stonewylde throbbing inside them. The communion of ceremony cakes and mead then follows, heightening everyone’s perception and enjoyment, and then the children, the old, and expectant and nursing mothers leave and go home to bed. The rituals continue in the Circle, with Handfasting for couples ready to make a permanent commitment to each other, and the Rites of Adulthood for all those who’ve reached their sixteenth birthday since the last festival. Magus then takes his May Queen off into the woods amongst the bluebells, and many couples stay up all night too, eventually falling asleep next to the dying bonfire.

Just before dawn the next morning, the Circle is made ready for the sunrise ceremony. Those who went home to their beds arrive, and Clip, wearing his brilliant green robes embroidered in gold with Green Men surrounded by radiant sun symbols, positions himself by the May Sister. Soft drumming begins and Magus and the May Queen materialise from the woods, taking up position by the Altar Stone. As the first rays of the sun appear, flashing around the May Sister stone, Clip calls out the words of the ritual, the brazier atop is lit by one of the woodsmen and Magus begins his chant. Climbing onto the Altar Stone, the sunbeams stream onto his upturned face and the green magic shimmers all around him. He becomes the living embodiment of the Green Man, full of virility and life-giving power. Others take up the chant, and Magus is silent as he receives the full blast of earth energy. A little while later, the crowd toast the Beltane in with more mead, and then everyone goes down to the Great Barn for breakfast.

During the day’s festivities, the Bel Fire is kept alight on top of the May Sister by a succession of woodsmen. On the Village Green, young girls wearing pretty white dresses, with flowers in their hair, dance the intricate Maypole Dance. Bright linen ribbons and long skeins of creeper are woven in and out as the girls perform their complicated steps. At last the great Maypole, freshly cut and erected for the occasion, is completely bound in brilliant strips of colour and foliage. The fiddlers retune their instruments, the pipers draw breath, and then the young men begin the Dance of the Staves. Dressed all in green, with white ribbons fluttering from their knees and wrists, the boys dance an equally complicated routine, crashing their staves up high and down low, and leaping over others’ staves in a complex routine. Finally the dance ends with a great clash of wood.

Everyone at Stonewylde is dressed for Beltane, the females in white and the males in green, and all sport foliage and flowers in their hair. A dais is set up on the Village Green, and the Green Man and May Queen sit on thrones decorated with bright flowers and boughs of hawthorn, ready for the Naming of the Babies ceremony. Every baby born since the previous Beltane is dressed in a beautifully embroidered white gown and cap and adorned with garlands of flowers. The mothers form a parade around the Green carrying their babies, which are then taken one by one up to the dais and presented to Magus. He holds the child aloft and welcomes it into the community, calling its name for all to hear. He kisses the baby and the May Queen places a necklace bearing a special charm around its neck. Each festival has its own symbol, and this is adopted by all those born nearest to the festival. Beltane’s symbol is the Green Man, and this is therefore given to each child born near Beltane, and will be engraved on the disc presented to them at their Rite of Adulthood.

After lunch on the Village Green, the games begin. There is a massive tug o’ war, with Villagers on one side and Hallfolk on the other. The great rope, woven from hemp grown in the Stonewylde fields, is marked in the middle and positioned over the widest part of the river as it flows by the Village. Men and boys take their places on opposite banks and of course the losing side end up falling into the river and getting thoroughly soaked. There are hurdle and sprinting races, tree climbing competitions and obstacle courses, haybale hurling and spear throwing. The girls take part in many dances, showing how nimble and light on their feet they can be. There is a competition for the most beautiful May headdress, and also the prettiest posy of flowers. All during the day the Bel Fire burns brightly up in the Stone Circle, and just before sunset the people gather there again to watch the sun go down and extinguish the sacred flame.

Then it’s feasting and dancing in the Great Barn, which is decorated with boughs of hawthorn and hundreds of papier mache Green Men made by the children and decorated with real leaves. These hang from the rafters and are pinned to the beams in the walls. Musicians play on a dais in the barn, changing places as they tire. Dancing and drinking continues late into the night, the children being taken to sleep in the Nursery or the Village School as they grow tired, looked after by the old women and expectant mothers who find the festivities too wild.

The day after Beltane, as with all the festivals, is one of recovery and clearing up, although the painted symbols in the Stone Circle will remain until the next festival. Many children are conceived at Beltane, to be born around Imbolc of the following year, and although Magus limits his own amount of offspring, the union with the May Queen is often the exception to this rule.