May Day Archives — The Rational Heathen

Walpurgis Night and May Day

April 27, 2023 The Rational Heathen Comments 0 Comment

Walpurgis Night and May Day are two festivals that are steeped in pagan and Heathen traditions. People have celebrated them for centuries in various parts of Europe. These festivals mark the beginning of the summer season. Both pagans and Christians associate these holidays with fertility, growth, and renewal.

Let’s explore the history and significance of Walpurgis Night and May Day. BY doing so, we can learn how they relate to pagan and Heathen beliefs.

The History of Walpurgis Night

Walpurgis Night in Jesenice in Prague-West District, Czech Republic by Chmee2, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Walpurgis Night is a festival that is celebrated on the night of April 30th. It is named after Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century Christian missionary who was canonized by the Catholic Church for her work in converting pagans to Christianity.

However, we can trace back the origins of Walpurgis Night to pagan and Heathen traditions that predate Christianity. In pre-Christian times, the festival was known as Valpurgisnacht. People celebrated it as a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest.

During Valpurgisnacht, people would light bonfires and leave offerings of food and drink for their ancestors and other spirits. They would also dress up in costumes and masks to scare away evil spirits.

Over time, the festival became associated with witches and witchcraft. Unfortunately, literature and folklore depicted it as a time when witches would gather on Brocken, a mountain in Germany. There, they would hold a Sabbath and perform spells and other magical rituals.

May Day’s Significence

May Day, which is celebrated on May 1st, is another festival that has roots in pagan and Heathen traditions. The festival marks the beginning of the summer season, and people associate it with fertility, growth, and the renewal of life after the long winter months.

In pre-Christian times, people knew May Day as Beltane. Pagans celebrated it as a time when the nature spirits awoke from their winter slumber. During the festival, people would light bonfires and dance around a maypole, which was decorated with ribbons and flowers.

Beltane was also a time of fertility, and pagans believed that couples who spent the night together on Beltane would be blessed with fertility and good fortune. This belief is reflected in the May Day tradition of crowning a May Queen and a May King, who represent the union of male and female energies.

How Walpurgis Night and May Day relate to Pagan and Heathen Beliefs

Walpurgis Night and May Day are both festivals that are steeped in pagan and Heathen beliefs. They show a deep reverence for nature and the cycles of life.

For pagans and Heathens, these festivals are an opportunity to connect with the natural world and to honor the spirits that inhabit it. They are also a time to celebrate the return of life and growth after the dark, cold winter months.

At the same time, Walpurgis Night and May Day are also an opportunity for us to reflect on the deeper spiritual meaning of these festivals. For pagans and Heathens, these festivals represent a time of spiritual renewal and transformation, a time when we can shed the old and embrace the new.

A Special Reverence for Nature

Walpurgis Night and May Day are two festivals that have been celebrated for centuries, and they continue to hold deep spiritual significance for pagans and Heathens today. These festivals are an opportunity to connect with the natural world, to honor our ancestors and other spirits, and to celebrate the renewal of life and growth that comes with the arrival of the summer season.

Whether you’re a pagan, Heathen, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty and power of nature, Walpurgis Night and May Day are festivals that are worth exploring and celebrating. By honoring these traditions, we can deepen our connection to the natural world and to the deeper spiritual forces that shape our lives.

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Beltane – ish or the May Pole

May 2, 2022 The Rational Heathen Comments 0 Comment

Beltane is a Gaelic observance that occurs on May 1st each year. It is to herald the arrival of summer. As a Heathen, I hardly notice that May 1st is here, but I don’t necessarily begrudge the Celtic pagans and the Wiccans their holiday.

However, we Heathens apparently have something that overlaps Beltane, and that is, the May Pole or Midsummer Pole.

Celebrating the Solstice

As Heathens, we tend to celebrate the solstice rather than Beltane. The summer solstice marks the longest daylight hours, and the ongoing darkness. After the summer solstice, daylight starts waning. In the North, it can be very obvious. In the North, our ancestors tended to think in terms of Winter and Summer. The rest of it was simply transitional times, with special events marked, such as Harvest and Entschtanning.

Those horses look bored. Why are these guys playing with their pole?

But then, there’s the May Pole. Which is sort of an oddity that Northern Europeans seem to have inherited from pagan times. Different regions have different observances, from nothing to partying, drinking, feasting, and dancing.

But What About Beltane?

I look at Beltane as one of those holidays we can certainly celebrate as Heathens. According to the Wikipedia article, herdsmen would drive their cattle between bonfires that the druids built to bless them and prevent disease. While I realize that Wikipedia can have errors, it at least sounds good to me.

People nowadays light bonfires, party, and feast. Probably some debauchery along with that, but hey, whatever floats your boat. I’m reminded of the song, “The Lusty Month of May” from the musical “Camelot,” whenever I think of May 1st and Beltane. Go figure.

May Day and the May Pole Weren’t Celebrated in the United States

In the United States, the whole May Pole concept got nixed by the Puritans, who figured it was one way to celebrate pagan gods and commit debauchery. So, when the International Worker’s Day thing started in 1889, Americans already had Labor Day, which came about in 1882. And since the May Day thing was linked to the Labor Movement, which was linked to Communism when I grew up, I knew damn little about its pagan roots.

The fact that the two celebrations are completely unrelated was somewhat confusing to me as a child, and I never really paid much attention to it.

Plus, unless you were into pole dancing, it seemed kind of lame.

Every day is May Day in a strip club.

Phallic Symbols and Walpurgis Nights

Well, okay then. We all can agree that the May Pole may have to do with phallic imagery. Apparently, in Bavaria, young men try to steal the May Pole after it is erected in April. If they succeed, then the town which has had its pole stolen must buy the other town beer on May 1st. I’ll leave your active imagination to work with that one.

According to Wikipedia–which isn’t the authority on the matter, but I’m lazy–May Day was celebrated as Walpurgis Night to celebrate the canonization of Saint Walpurga. Apparently, the Roman Catholics still had to change May 1st to venerate Mary with flowers, because Walpurgis Night wasn’t cutting into the communist celebrations of International Worker’s Day.

Celebrating the May Pole

At this point, I can say with some certainty that May Pole celebrations are probably Heathen, or at least pagan, in origin. There are enough traditions throughout Europe of jumping over fire and dancing around an Axis Mundi to accept that this is a legitimate celebration that came before Christianity. Some scholars have linked it with the Irminsul, which is the World Tree. So, maybe it is something worth celebrating.

At least we should consider going to the neighboring village and stealing theirs.

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