The Merry Month

Colette O'Neill

1 year ago

In the old Celtic culture, the first of Bealtaine, or May as it is known in English, ushered in summer.

May became known as the merry month! In Britain it was a time for celebrating with dance and song around the maypole. In Ireland, the old customs deemed that Bealtaine, as the month is called in our native language, be a marker in the cultural year, with millennia old traditions relived and enacted.

Wild Flowers and Fairythorn

Bealtaine is a time for celebrating the coming of summer, a liminal time when much is made of the fairy folk and our need to stay in good form with them. In this we leave out food and drink for them to celebrate also.

Bealtaine means ‘bright fire’ and this festival was indeed celebrated with bonfires, lit on all the major hills in Ireland.

The Light

I have often spoken about the importance of the light and especially the returning light. You may already be aware of the fact that the ancient Celts followed the year in terms of the light.

If you think about this, you will understand why the universal Calendar is focused on laws governed by man rather than nature. However, plants, animals and humans are governed by the light.

Thirteen Stones…a homage to the Moon Goddess

A woman’s menstrual cycle is governed by the moon. There are 13 moon cycles and a woman has 13 menstrual cycles each year.

When we come to recognise the power of nature, we then consider merging our lives and our life cycles with nature. In this respect I follow nature not ideology.

Moving

The beginning of summer in Ireland also held some fear…

Bealtaine was the time when the fairies moved their abode from their winter quarters to their summer quarters and consequently caused people to be careful on the land, for it was recognised that the fairy folk had special pathways that one should not interfere with.

A Festival of Flowers

Of course it is only to be expected that the celebration of Bealtaine included an abundance of flowers. People decorated their homes and doorways with flowers.

There is always an abundance of May flowers in Ireland, as the Gulf Stream warms the land and allows Ireland to be about a month ahead of most of Britain.