May is come!
I do love the word May, which can be a lovely woman’s name, a gracious way to say please, a branch of flowering hawthorne, the fifth month of our calendar year, or best of all, Beltane. Also called May Day on the Wheel of the Year, this time of the year is about flowers and ribbons and dancing, and the beginning of summer. The next turn will be the summer solstice which has also been called Midsummer for time out of mind, which puts us at the beginning of summer right now.
Roses are especially glorious right now. These are from an outdoor altar we made the first year of the pandemic, and it was as fine as any I have ever made.
Last week I was almost certain I couldn’t meet this turn of the wheel in any way, either by our long custom of rising at dark o’clock to zip up to the Baylands and help the Morris Dancers bring up the sun, or to create, by my other long custom, a post here to share with you all.
But no! As the sabbat draws closer I feel the old energy, the strange excitement, and I know it is just as it ever was, the favorite holiday of all of us peculiar pagans who hew to the old ways, the old calendar, the old tunes and rituals.
Collage is a time-tested way into my creative mind. Assembling scraps of paper from past artist book projects, piecing a quilt from scraps of fabric collected over a lifetime, even writing a post. For May Day, I’ve gathered a bit of this and a bit of that to share with you. Much of it is from other years, so if any of this sounds familiar, well, it does come around every year and it’s always the same and it’s always different.
I am especially enchanted with my image featured at top. Chosen from my 2017 journal and created on a collage spread, the juicy majuscules written at speed have a liveliness and joy that can’t be summoned at will. And in the photo, the shadow of a rose leaf seems to be in conversation with the art, lending its own green with its shadow to become part of the dance of pen, paint and brush.
I may be excited but I know better than to get too carried away. The veil is thin, they say, and mischief is afoot, the Good Folk around every corner ready to have their fun too. I have been knocked sideways a couple of time in recent years and have had to learn to “dance my own circle” next to others. Taking hands is hazardous to my equilibrium, more’s the pity! These medieval folk knew how to celebrate, and are surely bringing in the May, as the greenery in their hats shows.
In the spirit of a chorus, for that is yet another kind of assemblage, I will add some other voices here, for there is a wealth of music associated with the coming of the May.
Music for May Day
The May Day Carol, in this particularly sweet Revels recording, is sung by a full chorus of children, women and men.
Jean Ritchie’s recording of the May Day Carol, as brought to Appalachia from Britain, is breathtaking for her achingly sweet voice.
https://youtu.be/47gHmajRP18?si=N6O3nxyaYvntRxPs
Loreena McKennitt’s version of The May Day Carol called The Mummers’ Dance is featured in this video with some amazing vintage mummers who will surely bring you a smile.
And here is a page she wrote in 2021 about May Day with some amazing links to some incredible old film footage of the Padstow May hobby horse tradition on May Day.
Here is more than you could ever have guessed in the way of variations on the carol, with yet another splendid performance in Oxford (where they will all have gone quite crazy at Magdelen College on May Day). This delightful performance is at Holywell Music Room.
And for something stirring and joyous, I found this on an old post and decided to share it with you again. Thanks to my friend John Cutrone over at Convivio Book of Days, for this delightful music offering that came my way several years ago. A song for Walpurgis Nacht, or May Eve, it is very stirring and gets the blood up. The Swedes surely know how to celebrate the return of the warmth and the light!
The summer she will be here soon!
More than you could ever have guessed in the way of variations on the carol, with yet another splendid performance in Oxford, where they will all have gone quite crazy at Magdelen College, though this delightful performance is at Holywell Music Room.
And for something stirring and joyous, I found this on an old post and decided to share it with you again! Thanks to my friend John over at Convivio Book of Days, this delightful music offering came my way several years ago. A song for Walpurgis Nacht, or May Eve, it is very stirring, gets the blood up, and the Swedes surely know how to celebrate the return of the warmth and the light!
The summer she will be here soon!
In the Storefront
Some links to my artwork inspired by Beltane over the years, not as plenteous as my Yule cards but a respectable showing – if respectable is a word that can be used with this most rowdy of holy days on the Wheel of the Year.
News
Lastly, the exhibit Language, Decipherment, and Translation will be closing at the Grolier Club in New York City in another week or so, but before it does, there will be a virtual tour on Zoom with the curator, Deirdre Lawrence, on May 2 at 6:00 p.m. EDT (that’s 3:30 p.m. my time PDT), which I will be attending. I’m curious to visit the exhibit and see the wonders, and possibly I will be speaking briefly about my book The First Writing if time permits. You can reserve a space at Eventbrite free if you’d like to join us. It promises to be interesting!
