May Observances

Thanks to The Daily Globe: "J" WORLD

1st Beltane/May Day/Walburg's Night

This celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life. The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora. The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green. The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess. Colors are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight.

May Day, name popularly given to the first day of May, which for centuries has been celebrated among the Latin and Germanic peoples. May Day festivals probably stem from the rites practiced in honor of Flora, the Roman goddess of spring. May Day is currently celebrated as a festival for children marking the reappearance of flowers during the spring. It is traditionally greeted with joyous dancing around a garlanded pole, called a maypole, from which hang streamers held by the dancers. May Day is also celebrated in many European countries as a labor holiday, comparable to Labor Day in the United States.

http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/Beltane.html

2nd Fire Festival of Bona Dea

The festival of Bona Dea, the Roman goddess of the earth.

4th Feast of Sheila Na Gig/Fairy Day

Sacred to goddess Sheila Na Gig, the protector of the poor. Believers hang old clothes on hawthorn bushes all month beginning on this day to avert poverty.

On Fairy Day the mischievous fairy folk emerge from their hiding places, after a long winter of rest.

5th Feast of Banners/Cinco de Mayo/Feast of the Dragon

Cinco de Mayo is a holiday celebrated on May 5 by Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Its name is Spanish for Fifth of May. It commemorates the victory of a Mexican army over a French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, won the battle even though the French force was better armed and three times as large. The battle occurred after Emperor Napoleon III of France sent troops to Mexico to conquer the country.

In Central America, ancient rain festivals are performed by shamanic priests and priestesses of the original native faith. The ancient goddesses of rain and fertility are honored and invoked with prayers and offerings.

Feast of the Dragon is part of a celebration where, in China, dolls were made from sacred mugwort leaves and hung above gates and doors to repel negative influences and entities.

http://soil-physics.nmsu.edu/vista/esl/m5_hstry.html

6th Thargelia Festival

The Thargelia Festival is held in Greece in honor of Apollo, god of the sun, prophecy, music, medicine, and poetry. The festival was held on the sacred island of Delos each year, the birthplace of Apollo and the goddess Artemis.

8th Furry Dance

In England the Furry Dance is performed in the streets of Helston in honor of the forest deity Robin Hood. The festival is one of the oldest surviving spring ceremonies.

9th Feast of Artemis/Gudrod's Feast

Feast held in remembrance for Gudrod of Gudbrandsdal. Gudrod was a heathen whose tongue was cut out by Olaf the Fat (not to be confused with Olaf the Traitor).

11 - 15th Days of the Eishellige

The Days of the Eishellige (Ice Saints) are observed in southern Germany as the time when the presence of these "Strong Lords" brings unseasonably cold and/or wet weather. These saints names, Mamertius, Pancratius (Pancras), Bonifatius, and Cold Sophie, are Christinaized versions of the Swabian presiding spirits of the days.

12th Cat Parade/Aranya Sashti Day

In Belgium, the Cat Parade is celebrated in honor of felines.

In India they hold the Celebration of Aranya Sashti, a god of the woodlands similar to Pan.

14th Mother's Day/Festival of the Midnight Sun

The first celebrations in honor of mothers were held in the spring in ancient Greece. They paid tribute to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 17th century, England honored mothers on "Mothering Sunday," celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother's Day in 1872. Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother's Day as being dedicated to peace. Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about the official observance of Mother's Day. Her campaign to establish such a holiday began as a remembrance of her mother, who died in 1905 and who had, in the late 19th century, tried to establish "Mother's Friendship Days" as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War.

Peoples of the far northern section of Norway celebrate the Festival of the Midnight Sun in honor of the Norse Goddess of the Sun. The festival begins at sunrise and marks the beginning of ten consecutive weeks without night.

http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/special/holidays/97/mom/history.html

18th Pentecost/Feast of Pan/Whitsunday

Pentecost (Greek pentecoste,"fiftieth"), in Christianity, a festival observed on the seventh Sunday (50th day) after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles as they celebrated the ancient Jewish feast of Shabuoth. In the early church it was a time for administration of the sacrament of baptism, and in the Church of England and other Anglican churches the festival is called Whitsunday in allusion to the white robes traditionally worn by the newly baptized.

19th Feast of Pudenciana

22nd Ragnar Lodbrok's Day/Chung K'uei's Day

Ragnar was a famous viking, and on this day they celebrate his sacking of Paris.

May 24th Victoria Day/Empire Day/Sacred Furrow Day
Celebration of the Three Mothers/Thargelia

Sometimes referred to as Firecracker Day, in Great Britain in 1819 on May 24th, Queen Victoria was born. Every May 24th in Canada they celebrate her birth. In the 1900's the Canadians celebrated it as Empire Day. The name changed to Commonwealth Day, in 1947. Queen Victoria was the Queen of both Ireland and Great Britain. If you ever come up to Canada at this time of year we can guarantee that you will see your share of celebrating.

In Cambodia, Sacred Furrow Day is a ritual in which farmland was plowed by members of the royal family in order to appease the ancient Gods of the harvest and to ensure the land's fertility.

The Celtic Celebration of the Three Mothers is a Festival which honored the Triple Goddess, who brought prosperity and a good harvest. The Three Mothers or Triple Goddess are known world round in many cultures, and represent the three stages of life. The Goddesses are most often known by the titles of Maid, Mother and Crone.

Thargelia is the Greek birth of the moon goddess Artemis.

http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/mcc0091.html

http://www.pch.gc.ca/ceremonial-symb/english/day_vic.html

25th Trinity Sunday/Festival of Gaia

The Festival of Gaia, the deity recognized as the ancestral source of all life. Representing Earth, Gaia was one of the four primeval deities who were, in order, Chaos (Infinite Space), Gaia, Tartarus (Lower World), and Eros (Love). Gaia was revered as the fruitful power that sustains universal life, and was thereby recognized as the ancestral source of all life.

26th Day of Chin-hua-fu-jen

Day of Chin-hua-fu-jen is the festival of a chinese amazon goddess similar to the Greek Artemis or Roman Diana.

29th Oak Apple Day

Charles the Second, so they tell, Hid in an oak at Boscobel.
Later, the entire nation Rejoiced to see his Restoration,
And named the 29th of May, (Quite properly) Oak Apple Day!
By Raymond Wilson

Charles had escaped from the City of Worcester after the battle in 1651, and had fled with Lords Derby and Wilmot, Charles Giffard and other friends northwards to Boscobel. Here the King hid in an oak tree whilst Cromwell’s men searched in vain for him.On May 29th in 1660 King Charles II returned triumphantly to London. After nine long years in exile this, his thirtieth birthday, was a day Charles would never forget. He rode through crowds of people all cheering wildly and all wearing sprays of oak leaves and oak apples. Oak greenery was everywhere.

http://www.callnetuk.com/home/whe/a/wooakapple.htm

30th Memorial Day/Frigg's Day/Feast of the Queen of the Underworld

The location of the first observance of Memorial Day is in dispute. Some claim the custom of honoring war dead began in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Others claim the custom was originated by some Southern women who placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers after the Civil War.

In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War), named May 30th as a special day to honor the graves of Union soldiers. The selection of May 30th is attributed to a Virginian of French descent, Cassandra Oliver Moncure, who may have selected this date because it was "The Day of Ashes" in France-the day that Napoleon's remains were returned to France from St. Helena.
http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Acropolis/1465/memorial.html

Frigg, in Norse mythology, goddess of the sky and wife of Odin, the chief of the gods. She was worshiped as the protector of married love and housewives. A bunch of keys was her symbol. Frigg had two sons, Balder, the god of light, and Hoder, the blind god of darkness, who killed Balder with a mistletoe sprig. Frigg's name survives in the English word Friday (Frigg's day). In German mythology, Frigg was sometimes identified with Freya, the goddess of love.

Feast of the Queen of the Underworld - celebration honoring the underworld goddesses such as Hecate, Cybele, and in later times Black Isis.

31st Triple Blessing of the God Buddha

Triple Blessing of the God Buddha is observed on this day by Theravada Buddhists. To celebrate the God's birth, enlightenment, and passage into nirvana, shrines and houses are decorated with flowers and special prayer flags. Incense, flowers, and rice are offered as sacrifices. The Triple Blessing often lasts for three consecutive days.

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