May Day, Kentfield, CA, 1909 photo

May Day, Kentfield, CA, 1909

My stories on Mayday

Lá Fhéile Bealtaine shona daoibh

 

Lá Fhéile Bealtaine shona daoibh

Notch-peaf, or heliotrope phacelia, Mojave Desert, near Ivanpah

When I was a child, my grandmother always bade me wash my face in the May morning dew. Something to do with the fairies and the Otherworld. In this way culture was transmitted. Mayday was the one day we were allowed to bring a branch of the sacred hawthorn into the house. We had two trees she planted below the house. They didn't thrive in the California heat. But each spring, they blossomed, one red, and and one white. In Bantry, her father drove cattle between bonfires, and sent Catherine wheels down the hill. They weren't wheels, but whiskey barrels filled with tar. He lit and rolled them down the hill from the farm at Coom anÓr. This evening commemorates when the dark half of the year dies and the bright half of the year begins. My grannie was always quick to point out that Beltaine began on the eve of May 4. Not May 1. Somehow, the West Corkonians kept track of the old ways, counting the Cross Quarter days, despite the shift in the Gregorian calendar. She also said Bel/Beal was the god of light, he was not related to Balor, who was a solar god, like Lugh. She said May had to do with the arrival of summer, hence Bel's fires. Bal-ti-mor, who knew the American city was named after the fire god of May? Once I was chosen to crown the statue of the Virgin Mary with a pink rosebud wreath—we sang to the fairest Queen of the May. How did the Virgin Mary become associated with May? In school we wove May baskets of colored paper, and filled them with flowers then left them on neighbors' doorsteps. We also sang A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket... It was a day of hair ribbons and frilly dresses with long sashes. At school, we danced around the Maypole. Such magic was afoot, we were giddy with delight. Then the Lagunitas school board declared it pagan. They feared it was tainted with paganism and the the ever-present threat of Communism was a sub-text. We were devastated, of course. Something in us died that day. Something of wonder, something of beauty. They couldn't hear our distress call. mayday, mayday.  ... ---...  A small sliver of culture went down with the ship that day.



from a Facebook memory
added & rev. 4/1/2016 

Bealtaine (be-all-tin-a) from the Irish, meaning ‘Bright Fire’ 

My story on Mayday

Mayday traditions at Lagunitas School

When I was young, we used to celebrate May Day at Lagunitas School, giving each other little construction paper woven May baskets filled with posies, and we had a Maday parade to the Maypole, weaving streamers around the volleyball poles. It was great fun. Sort of like a double Easter parade. Then it stopped—with no explanation—sadly, someone must've complained to the school board. I remember asking why we didn't celebrate anymore and was told to never mind. It was as if I imagined it.

The Maypole ribbon dance filled me with absolute wonder—even if it was crepe paper streamers—I got to go a couple of weaves—and soon the braided pole was a hopelessly tangled mess. Bit it was pure magic.

I think we had real satin ribbons one year. In second grade, I thought school was grand with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's, St. Patrick's, Easter, and May Day celebrations. I liked school. Then we went secular. School became tediously long and dull—thanks to some knee-jerk Christians.

Beltaine

The May Day hills were burning, far and near. —Seamus Heaney

Beltaine: My great-grandfather in Bantry used to drive his cattle between two fires to purify them & bring luck. The God Bel, or Belenos' fires. Eadar dà theine Bhealltainn

Happy Beltaine ~ Féile Na Bealtaine

Happy Beltaine ~ Féile Na Bealtaine. The night of Bel's fires. Light a candle tonight, smudge the house with sage smoke. Jump over the candlestick. This is a night of enchantment, like Halloween, when the doors of the Otherworld open. Magic happens.

The Celtic day begin at sunset. So April 30, at sunset, is really May 1. Got it? Good. I won't mention that the calendar we use, is not the same as the one used in the Middle Ages, so it's anywhere from 4 to 9 days off, depending upon which century you hailed from.

I was driving down Hwy 80 from Martinez when the lurid sunset outdid its own clichés. I was stuck in the mother of all traffic jams and the sky was practicing its own weird version of coastal alpenglow. I thought of Heidi's firebird. A phoenix sky to herald the beginning of summer. (No not, the Summer Solstice, that's the half-way mark of summer.




added & revised 4/30/2016 from a FB memory

My AmieStreet Music RECcomendations in plain text

NB: this is an addendum to my first AmieStreet blog entry which I had fortuitously copied just as Amazon had taken over the site and taken down everything I had ever written. Because I had a browser open as Amazon killed the site I was lucky enough to go back and copy everything and paste it here, but I couldn't get the reviews to show up right—I tried everything. 

And when Blogger goes wrong on long pieces, it goes very, very wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to ameliorate my Irish Redhead Gene Myth blog—sans losing every URL—and that piece has enough URLS to sink a ship. The more I fiddled, the worse it got. After many mishaps, I finally managed to get rid of all the hidden HTML bits–and scrub it scrupulously clean to repost here. (In case you're wondering why on earth I posted this piece.)

A note on the process of AmieStreet RECing. After a song was purchased, we were given an opportunity to recommend it. Writing against a ticking clock, and once posted, only 15 minutes to revise & edit your REC, made it a rather fast & furious art form. Very Zen. Whatever came to the surface. On your marks, get set....

Funnily enough, I actually earned 15 cents on John Riley–just as the AmieStreet site was taken over at midnight by Amazon. And of course, couldn't cash out on all my hard-earned pennies! Sorta like going to Vegas and being handed that little strip of paper instead of a real jackpot with coins clanging and bells clamoring. LOL. Read on.