Dancing Around The Meaning of The May Day Maypole

by Marisa

So... May Day. Something about Maypoles and flower baskets, right? Like Groundhogs' Day (aka Imbolc) before it, May Day has yet to make much of an impact among contemporary American holidays. And yet this day, also known as Beltane, has tremendous significance among Pagans, second only to Samhain/Halloween. So maybe those poles are worth a closer look...

As with all Pagan sabbats, Beltane parallels the wheel of the year, celebrating the bloom of spring flowers and blessing their growth into a bountiful harvest. Celebrated at the mid-point between the Vernal Equinox (Ostara) and the Summer Solstice (Litha), Beltane also marked the last of the spring fertility festivals (after Imbolc and Ostara), as the cattle were driven to pasture.

But let's get to the good stuff: fertility festivals? Just as crops burst from the earth and flowers expand into bloom, Pagans believe that at Beltane the, um, pleasures of the self are similarly awakened. That's right, from springtime courtships to that enormous ribboned phallus, Beltane is basically about sex. And frankly, it isn't even discreet.

Young couples were encouraged to test their fertility with Beltane trysts, and any babies born from Beltane were believed to be blessed by the Goddess herself. Trial unions, called hand-fastings (as the lovers' clasped hands were bound by ribbon), were also popular at Beltane, committing the couple to each other for one year and a day in preparation for a marital commitment. (Actual marriage, however, was discouraged in May, in deference to the union between Goddess and God.)

And that sexual union? Brings us right back to the Maypole, essentially an enormous phallus, thrust deep into the earth, around which young men and women dance, weaving colored ribbons in encouragement of the earth's (and their own) fertility. For many Pagans, dancing the Maypole is an enchanted experience, uniting the energy of the earth, and the energy of the sun to yield a bountiful harvest. So, whether you subscribe to the more... suggestive interpretations or not, clearly a day of celebration is upon us. We at Daily Mantra hope you enjoy.

| 04/30/08 | Practices