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Beltane, beltane, beltane...the very name rings with joy to me.
This is a time of great merriment, a celebration of the joy of life reborn. Young birds are hatching, the stag is rutting, flowers are blooming, and the trees are putting out their first leaves.
Beltane is an ancient festival in Europe, and still celebrated in some places much as it has been for centuries. The maypole is chosen, or a may tree. Of course, its a phallic symbol of the burgeoning life and fertility of spring. The celebrants dance around it, winding it in bright ribbons, symbolic of the interweaving of our lives with all things.
A May Queen is chosen and reigns for a day with honor, she is sprinkled and crowned with flowers. The lads and ladies "go a-maying", picking spring flowers
and making garlands of them to wear. Special sugary treats are made and shared. A great bonfire is lit, and leaping over it brings good luck.
This is one of my favorite holidays. Depending on where I am living my husband and I buy crepe paper ribbons and dance the may tree together,
honoring a tree in our own yard most often. Then we spend the rest of the day indulging ourselves and enjoying each other as we do our favorite things together.
I'll fix a special feast, or perhaps we will go out to a very nice restaurant, then on to a bar with live music, or in one case a wonderful coffee house where we were pleasently surprised by a visit from the MayQueen, a parade of boys dancing attendance on her, some playing music, as she paraded by, passing out treats to everyone.
This is a time to just relax and have FUN for a little while. The winter was survived, the seeds of spring are planted, and the first peek of the abundant harvest to come can be seen.
Tis Beltane. The sap is rising in the trees, the green buds are beginning to unfurl. Flowers dress the Earth in a gown of many colors. We celebrate life and love and the weaving of all things together in the dance of the maypole, all people together intertwining, a special color, a special gift from each of us to the whole creating beauty. Creating new life.
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