Happy May Day…Whatever the Hell That Means

Today, 5/1, is May Day. I, like most people I know, don’t know jack shit about May Day, except that “Mayday!” is the thing you’re supposed to shout into your intercom when your WWII fighter jet gets shot down. So I’ve decided to do a little investigating for educational purposes while I sift through SonicBids bands all hoping for a spot on our Band of the Day post.

As it turns out, May Day is about the most burly awesome pagan holiday ever. For the Irish Gaelics and Ancient Celts, May Day is also known as Beltane, a Fertility Rites of Spring Festival/Orgy.

I actually tried to spark a Beltane ritual a few years back at the Oregon Country Fair….despite it being July and two months past its time. I ended up with 3rd degree burns on my feet after taking mushrooms and fire walking. True story. Wrote a song about it. Look into that shit, you might get a few hippie chicks to do some fun pagan stuff with you.

Anyway, so I know what I’m planning on doing tonight, after my eight hour work day, thanks to International Workers Day, which also corresponds with 5/1.

From Wikipedia:

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, as in the Celtic celebration of Beltane, and the Walpurgis Night of the Germanic countries. Many pre-Christian indigenous celebrations were eventually banned or Christianized during the process of Christianization in Europe. As a result, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on 1 May.

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary’s month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary’s head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets,” small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps.[2]