Saturday, May 12, 2007

May - be

Damn. I missed all that about it turning into Bealtaine and the start of summer.

So, I went in search of something to mark it. I liked the sound of Walpurgis Night which means Witches night (I know Minx will like that), where the witches have a bit of a hooley on the mountains in Germany and all over Northern Europe generally.

But the apparitions on the Brocken mountain, where some of this shindigging goes on, sound interesting -you need the right conditions to see them - but what they are is a magnified shadow (probably a human sort), combined with the moisture in the air at a certain time of day et voila, there's a weird vision!

Makes you wonder about the Yetis on the other side of the world.

Anyhow, the one thing in common with these celebrations is that May 1 is regarded as another gateway, like Halloween, where souls of the dead are abroad, and there may be an interchange between the living and the dead.

Makes sense really.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Of course it makes sense. All Pagan sabbats are celebrations of the Wheel of the Year.
Samhain (Halloween) celebrates the dying years and hopes that everyone makes it through the winter.
Ostara says - well thank f**k for that we did!
Beltane celebrates the fertility of the land and Lammas tells folk that it's a good time to get pregnant.
Walpurgis Night is a Pagan celebration with its roots in Nordic origin and yes, Pagans like to keep the dead happy, cos you never know, do you?

apprentice said...

Interesting B! May seems to have so many things associated with it.
It is a glorious month, everything bursting with life and promise.

Unknown said...

I always thought Newgrange was pretty cool with all that souls of the dead being set free stuff. I'm glad there some humans out there who know and understand the magic of all life.

Meloney Lemon said...

This too is a glitch in the matrix - ask Debi.

Kay Cooke said...

It all sounds rather mystical - here we enter winter ... however, May has been very kind to us so far (no frosts yet) - a real cause for celebration.

Unknown said...

good point CB - I do forget that sometimes. I wonder what parts of the year peoples like the Maori hold dear... must go off and look now!

Mel - I am intrigued now...

And Minx, thanks for pointing out the bits I forgot to mention... that's me, always forgetting about the bleeding obvious!

Apprentice - thanks too - some day I might start making sense... I thnk I spend too much time in my head. :)