[Oe List ...] Denise Long's May Musings

[Herman Greene]

I have always been intrigued by May Day, a collection of various labor
holidays and pagan and Christian Holy

Days. In its social and political sense, May 1st is International Worker's
Day, commemorating historic

achievements of the labor movement and in remembrance of the 1886 Haymarket
Riot in Chicago which led to the

official sanction of the eight-hour workday. In many European countries, May
Day is an official government

holiday that is often referred to as "Labor Day".

 

I am even more fascinated by the ancient spiritual roots of May Day. It was
originally a Celtic and European

festival celebrating fertility and the return of spring and the sun. As with
many pagan holidays, it soon had its

Christian overlay. May Day is exactly a half-year from November 1, All
Saints Day. It was also known as

Beltane, the ancient Gaelic holiday celebrated in Scotland and Ireland. May
1st was Cross-quarter Day, marking

the midpoint in the Sun's progress between the spring equinox and the summer
solstice. In rural areas, it was the

beginning of the pastoral season when herds of livestock were driven out to
summer pastures and mountain

grazing lands.

 

The lighting of bonfires on mountains and hills was the most important
activity of Beltane. In fact, the word can

mean "bright fire", or "shining one". The Druids would kindle bonfires on
top of a hill and rush the village cattle

through the flames to purify them and get rid of the vestiges of winter
sickness. People would also jump between

the fires to purify themselves and to seek good luck in the coming year.

In a May Day sermon, James Ishmael Ford, a Unitarian minister, said that
this holiday speaks to the spiritual shift

we experience when winter cynicism and despair finally give way to hope and
a sense of possibility. It is a time

for looking at new directions and possibilities.

 

I like May Day with its complex layering of spiritual and political
elements, pagan and Christian roots, green earth

and hot ashes. It is brim-full of image and metaphor. It reminds me of the
cross-points in my own life, the

intersection of politics and faith, the convergence of activism and
fire-gazing. I feel a longing to gather together

my many competing selves and herd them through a purifying fire, cleansing
away all that weighs me down.

Next Sunday, May 11th, is Pentecost, another important Christian festival
where flames and wind are

central images. In ecclesiastical calendars Pentecost is the seventh Sunday
after Easter and closes Eastertide. On

this day, the church commemorates God's Spirit descending on the disciples
in tongues of fire accompanied by the

sound of a rush of wind. Pentecost is observed as the birthday of the
church, marking the time when God made

visible the divine sparks that live in each human soul. And like the early
disciples, we in our time and place can

also feel freshened by a season of energy and action, reminded that our
vocation is to reach out across differences

to create new community.

 

_________________________

Center for Ecozoic Studies

2516 Winningham Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27516

USA

919-942-4358 (ph & fax)

www.ecozoicstudies.org

 

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