Thursday...

Well, for the last week I've been busy -- first with writing, then over the weekend with Beltane celebrations; after that, with a new time sink called ancestry.com, and finally with gardening. Hopefully I can get some writing done today!

For Beltane we had two celebrations: first, our private one on Friday night, and then the public ADF celebration on Saturday in Cheeseman Park with SBGH. Chilly weather for both - Friday night we actually had a little sleet and snow, so the warmth of the leaping fire was very welcome. Saturday was dry but cold. I took my camp stove to provide hot tea and mulled wine for the potluck that follows the ceremony, and was very popular as a result!

Still getting frost most nights, though the next three days will be warmer. Time to till the tomato beds...

-GRG

Beltane

Saturday we celebrated Beltane with some local Druids. This came about through a chance encounter last October, when we visited Newgrange on the Irish trip. All very appropriate to my current research.

I've tentatively started writing again. I realized I was waiting to figure out the rest of the plot, and it doesn't work that way - not for me, anyway. So it's time to get back to work!

-GRG

Still here...

How the time flies - and how the writing doesn't! Beltane already, and I haven't posted! (Memo to self: must do better!)

But the garden's dug, I've read quite a bit about ancient European religions, and the tomato seedlings are beginning to fill the cold frame. The first apple tree is in full bloom, the new one (got to pollinate the first) is starting, and the first cherry blossoms opened two days ago. Tonight and tomorrow we're celebrating Beltane, and Sunday I will start writing again - no excuses!

So - happy Beltane, all!

-GRG

Beltane

Tonight is Beltane, May Eve, the spring fire festival: Nos Calan Mai in Welsh. In my garden yesterday the first apple blossom and the first six or seven cherry blossoms opened, and the first pea flower appeared. Tomorrow we may have snow again, but it will be quickly gone.

We have deferred our Beltane celebration to Saturday night, partly because of logistics, partly because the first local farmer's market of the season is Saturday morning, and we like to shop there for part of the feast. I feel there has been enough calendar reform over the centuries that any time within a few days of the date is good enough.

Last year I posted a description of an ancient Beltane celebration from my book Storyteller. On another blog this morning I read a beautiful description of a small modern celebration. There are many ways to celebrate the turning of the seasons. The main thing, I think, is to be aware.

-GRG

Beltane Fires

Storyteller begins and ends at Beltane, the spring fire-festival of the Celtic lands which is still celebrated as May Day. Beltane is the beginning of summer, as Samhain (modern Halloween) is the beginning of winter, that dark half of the year when herdsmen and wise warriors stay at home, and wandering bards winter where they can. After Beltane, the herds of cattle and sheep were driven up the mountains to their summer pastures, where they could make good use of the rough grazing, safely distant from the growing crops below. Often, before they went, they were blessed and purified by being driven between the Beltane fires:

“We watched as the black and brown cattle were driven bawling between the fires, the cows with their calves at their heels, and the sparks flying wild about them; and after the cattle, the sheep, with the sheepdogs barking behind. Then, as the fires were dying down, the men and women went through, the young ones running and laughing, some of them holding hands…” -Gwernin, in Storyteller

Most of our surviving traditions for Beltane come from Ireland and Scotland; that the festival was celebrated in the same manner in the Wales of Gwernin’s time seems likely but unprovable. As in all such quandaries, the storyteller makes a choice: you can see my choice above.

Happy Beltane to you all!