SGC Admin: Yep it`s getting to that time of the year when it`s most popular for “tying the knot`… If you have ever wondered what goes into the Pagan celebration of hand-fasting (or getting married) check out Patti`s article below… 🙂Â
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Summer Solstice June 21 2015… Happy Summer Folks… Lots of ideas from Patti Wigington AboutPagan.com
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Patti Wigington Beltane Rituals & Ceremonies: Beltane May 1 2015: The Magical Blend (Montreal) Beltane Traditions and Rituals
Beltane Rituals & Ceremonies
Patti Wigington
Paganism/Wicca Expert
Depending on your particular tradition, there are many different ways you can celebrate Beltane, but the focus is nearly always on fertility. It’s the time when the earth mother opens up to the fertility god, and their union brings about healthy livestock, strong crops, and new life all around. Here are a few rituals you may want to think about trying — and remember, any of them can be adapted for either a solitary practitioner or a small group, with just a little planning ahead.
April’s showers have given way to rich and fertile earth, and as the land greens, there are few celebrations as representative of fertility as Beltane. Observed on May 1st, festivities typically begin the evening before, on the last night of April. It’s a time to welcome the abundance of the fertile earth, and a day that has a long (and sometimes scandalous) history. Try some of these rituals and ceremonies for your Beltane sabbat celebration.
- Celebrate Beltane with a Maypole Dance
- Beltane Bonfire Ritual – a group ceremony
- Hold a Family Abundance Rite for Beltane
- Honor the Sacred Feminine with a Goddess Ritual
- Beltane Planting Ritual for Solitaries
Setting Up Your Beltane Altar
It’s Beltane, the Sabbat where many Pagans choose to celebrate the fertility of the earth. This Sabbat is about new life, fire, passion and rebirth, so there are all kinds of creative ways you can set up for the season. Try some of these ideas to get your altar ready for your celebrations!
Beltane Prayers
By the time Beltane rolls around, sprouts and seedlings are appearing, grass is growing, and the forests are alive with new life. If you’re looking for prayers to say at your Beltane ceremony, try these simple ones that celebrate the greening of the earth during the fertility feast of Beltane.
5 Ways to Celebrate Beltane With Kids
Every year, when Beltane rolls around, we get emails from folks who are comfortable with the sexual fertility aspect of the season for adults, but who’d like to reign things in just a little when it comes to practicing with their young children. Don’t worry! Here are five fun and easy ideas for celebrating the season with your kiddos.
Beltane History – Celebrating May Day
Beltane kicks off the merry month of May, and has a long history. This fire festival is celebrated on May 1 with bonfires, Maypoles, dancing, and lots of good old-fashioned sexual energy. Let’s look at the history behind the Beltane season
There are numerous deities associated with the Beltane season, as well as a number of folkloric characters.
- Deities of Beltane
- Who Were the Mother Goddesses?
- Who Is the Green Man?
- Cernunnos, the Wild God of the Forests
- The Greek God, Pan
- The May Queen vs. the Queen of Winter
- What is a Sheela na Gig?
Interested in learning about some of the traditions behind the celebrations of May Day? Learn why the Romans had a big party, why we dance around a Maypole, what a hobby horse is, and the reasoning behind all those bonfires.
- Maypole History
- Morris Dances and Mummer’s Plays
- Legends of the Bees
- Welcome the Birds at Beltane
- May 6: Honoring Eyvind Kelda
- Floralia: The Roman May Day Celebration
- The Plynteria Festival
- Walpurgisnacht
- Faerie Lore
- Welcome Faeries to Your Garden
- The Secret Language of Flowers
- What is the Bale Fire?
- The Beltane Hobby Horse
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The Magical Blend Montreal
Beltane traditions, rituals and Correspondences
May 1 will be the sabbat Beltane, also known as May Day or Walpurgisnacht. Beltane begins at sundown on April 30. Traditionally, couples stay out overnight “bringing in the May,” or gathering spring flowers and greenery with which to create garlands, crowns, and bouquets. It is a time of joyous celebration of the fertility displayed by the land as it further opens to the touch of the sun: trees have put forth new leaves and are now flowering, the new grass is lush and thick; the days grow ever longer, and the rains nourish the new crops in the fields.
This festival is opposite Samhain on the Wheel of the Year, and like that Sabbat, it is a night of divination as the veils between worlds grow thin. The ancient Celts recognized only two seasons– summer and winter– and as Samhain was the beginning of Winter, the dark half of the year, so Beltane recognizes the beginning of Summer, or the light half of the year.
Beltane is also called Walpurgisnacht in Germany. Foods associated with Beltane include anything dairy– as the livestock is now feeding on new grass which improves the quality of milk and cream– as well as mead and other alcoholic beverages.
Traditions and Rituals
Beltane is considered a sexually licentious time. It is the beginning of the season favoured for marriages and handfastings, as well as for re-enactment of the Great Rite, the union between the God and the Goddess. Much poetry and folklore exists describing the abandonment with which dancing, singing, and playing leads to lovemaking. Children conceived on this night are called “children of the Gods,” and are said to be blessed.
The Maypole is perhaps the most recognizable accessory to Mayday celebration. A dancing game in which mean and women interweave ribbons attached to a high pole (passing one another with plenty of kisses), this action is another form of the Great Rite, the pole representing the God, and the ribbons which slowly enfold it representing the Goddess.
Correspondences
- Colors: Blue, Green, Pink, Red, Yellow, White.
- Gemstones: Amber, Malachite, Orange Carnelian, Sapphire, Rose Quartz.
- Decorations: Flowers, Greenery, Maypole, Ribbon, Cauldrons & Fires, Fertility, Plants, Brooms.
- Deities: Aphrodite, Asherah, Belili, Beltene, Brigid, Cernunnos, Cupid/Eros, Danu, Freya, Flora, Gwenhwyvar, Hina, Ishtar, Maia, Manawyddan, Mary, Oiwyn, Oshun, Ostara, Pan, Sappha, Tonantzin, Vesta.
- Foods & Offerings: Strawberries, Cherries, Fruits, Salads, Wine, Dairy, Breads, Cereals.
- Animals: Swallow, Dove, Swan, Cats, Lynx, Leopard.
- Herbs: Almond, Broom, Clover, Dittany of Crete, Elder, Flowers, Foxglove, Hawthorne, Ivy, Lily of the Valley, Marigold, Meadowsweet, Mint, Mugwort, Rose, Rowan, Sorrel, Thyme, Woodruff, Yarrow.
- Scents: Frankincense, Lavender, Lilac, Myrrh, Rose, Vanilla.
- Spells: Love for Yourself and for your Partner, Union, Fertility, Deep Thought, Intuition, Renewal, Nurturing your Goals.
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Your guide to Paganism/Wicca with Patti Wigington: Imbloc:
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Happy Lamas :) A brief history with Patti Wigington….
SGC Admin: Check out the history of Lammas, A pagan celebration from Patti Wigington … sourced from her “About.com” page… 🙂
Happy Lammas Everyone…
Lammas History:
Welcoming the Harvest
By Patti Wigington,
Beginning of the Harvest:
At Lammas, also called Lughnasadh, the hot days of August are upon us, much of the earth is dry and parched, but we still know that the bright reds and yellows of the harvest season are just around the corner. Apples are beginning to ripen in the trees, our summer vegetables have been picked, corn is tall and green, waiting for us to come gather the bounty of the crop fields. Now is the time to begin reaping what we have sown, and gathering up the first harvests of grain, wheat, oats, and more.
This holiday can be celebrated either as a way to honour the god Lugh, or as a celebration of the harvest.
Celebrating Grain in Ancient Cultures:
Grain has held a place of importance in civilization back nearly to the beginning of time. Grain became associated with the cycle of death and rebirth. The Sumerian god Tammuz was slain and his lover Ishtar grieved so heartily that nature stopped producing. Ishtar mourned Tammuz, and followed him to the Underworld to bring him back, similar to the story of Demeter and Persephone.
In Greek legend, the grain god was Adonis. Two goddesses, Aphrodite and Persephone, battled for his love. To end the fighting, Zeus ordered Adonis to spend six months with Persephone in the Underworld, and the rest with Aphrodite.
A Feast of Bread:
In early Ireland, it was a bad idea to harvest your grain any time before Lammas — it meant that the previous year’s harvest had run out early, and that was a serious failing in agricultural communities. However, on August 1, the first sheafs of grain were cut by the farmer, and by nightfall his wife had made the first loaves of bread of the season.
The word Lammas derives from the Old English phrase hlaf-maesse, which translates to loaf mass. In early Christian times, the first loaves of the season were blessed by the Church.Â
Honoring Lugh, the Skillful God:
In some Wiccan and modern Pagan traditions, Lammas is also a day of honoring Lugh, the Celtic craftsman god. He is a god of many skills, and was honoured in various aspects by societies both in the British Isles and in Europe. Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-NAS-ah) is still celebrated in many parts of the world today. Lugh’s influence appears in the names of several European towns.
Celebrating Lammas Today:
Honouring the Past
In our modern world, it’s often easy to forget the trials and tribulations our ancestors had to endure. For us, if we need a loaf of bread, we simply drive over to the local grocery store and buy a few bags of pre-packaged bread. If we run out, it’s no big deal, we just go and get more. When our ancestors lived, hundreds and thousands of years ago, the harvesting and processing of grain was crucial. If crops were left in the fields too long, or the bread not baked in time, families could starve. Taking care of one’s crops meant the difference between life and death.
By celebrating Lammas as a harvest holiday, we honour our ancestors and the hard work they must have had to do in order to survive. This is a good time to give thanks for the abundance we have in our lives, and to be grateful for the food on our tables.
Lammas is a time of transformation, of rebirth and new beginnings.
Continue reading “Happy Lamas 🙂 A brief history with Patti Wigington….”
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