Beltane

Beltane, or May Day, is the celebration of the beginning of summer. Warm weather is finally here. Bel-fires were built on hilltops to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the land. Cattle were turned out to pasture, first being driven between two bonfires to ensure their protection. People would leap the bonfires for luck, and couples leapt them hand-in-hand to announce engagements.


May Day is predominantly a fertility festival, and it may feel a little strange to celebrate this with our children. While you probably will not want to emphasize the idea of sex, you can use this as a time to help your children feel more comfortable and joyful about their bodies. Wake up early in the morning and bathe your faces with the dew; this is said to ensure beauty all year long! Decorate the bathroom with flowers, candles, and gemstones; then pamper your kids with a delicious scented bath using fancy bath salts. Children love to give and receive massages; make a Beltane massage oil by adding a few drops each of rose, lavender, ylang-ylang, and ginger oil to a carrier oil such as sweet almond or jojoba oil. Help them to make self-portraits, using scrap construction paper, feathers, yarn, fabric, doilies, and anything else you have laying around the house, and display them over your altar.


Stay up late on May Eve and have a bonfire—but be careful if you plan to jump over it yourself! Then gather greenery—branches, vines, flowers—and go round the neighborhood decorating friends’ doors. What a lovely surprise for them to wake up to! Leave washcloths out on the lawn overnight to catch the dew.


May Day itself just wouldn’t be May Day without a Maypole. If you can get hold of a long pole, decorate it with flowers and ribbons and dance around it. In place of a pole, you can use a tree, or even a bush! Dance around it using the grapevine step: left foot out to the left, right foot behind, left foot out, right foot in front, etc. If you are in an apartment, you can make a Maypole out of an old wrapping paper tube, or an even smaller one out of a wooden dowel and use it to decorate a cake!


Stay home from the office on May Day and have a barbecue. Besides your Maypole dancing, you can enjoy many summer games. Play tag or catch, run races, play croquet. Archery is traditionally associated with May Day in England and Germany. Light your bonfire again and sit around it singing and telling stories. The story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian is a good one; by English tradition, May Day was "their" day. There’s also the story of Lady Godiva; or the many Celtic folk tales which share the same idea of a riddle: Grainne and Diarmaid, or Llew and Bloduewedd; or the Norse myth of Rasnar Lodbrog and Aslog.


May Day foods include dairy, oats, and asparagus; make desserts sweetened with honey. Make may wine, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, and pour it over sliced strawberries. Barbecue is wonderful for May Day; the hot, red, spicy sauce recalls the sun whose return we are celebrating.


Beth’s Very Own Savory Barbecue Sauce

  • 1 med onion, chopped
  • 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • ½ cup molasses
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • ½ cup honey
  • ½ cup apple butter
  • 2 tbs oil
  • dash Tabasco (or more to taste)
  • 3 tbs Worcestershire sauce
  • ¼ cup sherry

Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil until golden. Add the sherry, then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Let simmer for about 15 minutes until the flavors are combined. This sauce stores well in the refrigerator, and can be used on any meat!


May Wine

  • 2 quarts white wine OR white grape juice
  • About 1 cup sweet woodruff leaves, crushed
  • 1 pint strawberries, sliced
  • ½ cup sugar
  • Juice and grated peel of 1 lime
  • Sprigs of sweet woodruff or mint or violets for garnish

Soak the crushed sweet woodruff leaves in the wine or juice for a few hours. Strain and add the sugar and lime. Pour over the strawberries in a punch bowl and garnish.


Bannocks

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 ½ cups white flour
  • ½ cup oat flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ cup oil or soft butter
  • ½ cup warm water
  • ½ tsp cinnamon

Stir together the dry ingredients. Add the butter and stir with a fork. Mix in the warm water, adding more flour if necessary to make a smooth dough. Roll out to ½ inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or the top of a drinking glass. Place on baking sheet and bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.


  


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