Tag Archives: seasonal

Beltane and Modernizing Tradition

“A lot of it is making it up as I go along, it’s really hard to pin down which are the fire festivals because they all involve fire. Beltane is for sure one of them. This is a midpoint festival, in between the spring equinox and summer solstice. It’s about the coming of the bright half of the year, something more heavy and developed than Ostara, which is about light. Here, things actually start blooming.

“Historically, this is when a lot of weddings (a.k.a. hand fastings). A lot about sexuality, life and unity. This is where the May Queen, someone getting crowned queen and getting adorned with flowers. Here in particular, fire is a purifying force in the sense of getting ready for something instead of getting rid of something. They would have cows run between their fires for fertility, or extinguish their personal fires to light a communal bonfire. Symbolic of reawakening a spirit of community.”

Context

It’s tough, especially since I’ve been trying to figure stuff out and make my own traditions out of the old traditions. I don’t really have the time to do that now. I grew my first tomato on the day of Beltane. It was a wee little thing, but I treasured it so much. To see something you nurtured coming into itself was really nice. [For this holiday, I] decided to focus on fresh produce, and ate a bunch of tomatoes with a friend. The friend smoked, I had an edible, and we cooked stuff with the tomatoes.”

Analysis

The informant talked at length about cultivating their own traditions, building out an identity, faith, and practice, by looking back at older, more esoteric examples. Rituals are often symbolic of our identities and what’s most important to us. For the informant, a resonance with nature led her to holidays and traditions that honored that connection.

The constraints of modern living, however, have forced her to adapt that celebration to meet her current needs. A busy life doesn’t leave much room for experimentation, and many of the symbols evoked by Beltane can’t really be accomplished in modern settings. It’s difficult finding the space to have cows run between fires these days.

How we celebrate evolves with the times, but why we celebrate doesn’t. Does a ritual still remain the same if the practice of it is different, but the essence of and motivation for doing the ritual remains?

Samhain and Spiritual Perseverance

“Samhain is the Celtic new year. There are essentially 8 big observational holidays/festivals in the Celtic wheel of the year. Those observe the solstices and equinoxes, as well as the halfway points between them. Samhain is the start of the year, which starts going into the dark months instead of out of them. This is because the Celts were so focused on the harvest. For them, the day started when the sun set, not when it rose.

It’s one of the bigger [Celtic festivals]. It overlaps significantly with All Hallow’s Eve, which inspired Halloween. It’s a 2-3 day celebration. Traditionally people would dress up during this time. Because it was going into the colder months, people believed that the veil between our world and the next was especially thin, so they would dress as spirits to ward off interference from other spirits. Turnip carving, which was also meant to ward off spirits, eventually evolved into pumpkin carving. All Hallow’s Eve has definitely transitioned into more of a Catholic thing though.

That’s when they would do the wicker man burning. [The details] depends on which clan you’d ask, but they would build a massive… man out of straw and kind of put a sacrifice in there. Obviously, the informant doesn’t do that. It’s about the new year, honoring the dead, and the final harvest. It would end with the Dumb Supper. This might overlap more with witch stuff, but it’s celebrating the final harvest with your family, and members who have passed have come to join in the feast and celebrate with you. That’s October 31st to November 1st.”

Context

The informant tends to celebrate it with a bonfire and feast since it’s the biggest of the fire festivals. The informant also liked spirituality as something that existed in harmony or in connection with nature. They found something meaningful in the solstices and equinoxes, more so than Christmas or other holidays. The changing of nature has a lot of concrete meaning. It’s an energy that they can see and feel as opposed to something more abstract.

Being in harmony with nature is important to the informant. She started learning about the druids first (she’s not a formal member of the religion) when she was working on a project. She felt a “vibe,” the festivals made a lot of sense to her, and they honored harmony with nature while maintaining a certain whimsy. They referenced the circle of life, its ebb and flow, the constant motion rather than static holidays.

Analysis

The informant felt an emotional connection and spiritual resonance to festivals like Samhain. Despite not being an official member of the Druidic faith, these seasonal celebrations aligned far more with their perception of reality far more than static, arbitrary holidays like Christmas or New Year’s. It’s well documented how festivals and rituals are markers of great change, and I think it’s interesting to note how these festivals form around perceived changes in our environments. Furthermore, how similar observations hundreds of years later can compel a person to find affinity with celebrations of old. Beliefs shared across the diaspora of time connect our past and present in profound ways, and it’s fascinating to comprehend why Druidic beliefs can still resonate so strongly with people outside of the faith and beyond its heyday.

May Day in the Midwest

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Residence: Vacaville, CA

Text: In the Midwest, especially in places like Iowa, May Day is celebrated on May 1st as a fun, lighthearted way to welcome spring. Kids make small “May baskets” filled with candy, popcorn, and flowers, often using simple materials like construction paper or Dixie cups with pipe cleaner handles. These baskets are left on friends’ or neighbors’ doors, and if the person catches the one who delivered it, they’re supposed to give them a kiss. The tradition is more about celebrating spring and community than the labor-related history of May Day.

Although the global version of May Day has ties to labor rights and political activism, the Midwestern American version is far more centered on themes of renewal, creativity, and community. It marks the arrival of spring after a long winter, offering an opportunity for neighbors, friends, and classmates to connect through small acts of kindness and thoughtful creativity.

Context: Oh, May Day was so fun growing up. I’m from Iowa, and every year we’d make these little May baskets for our classmates or neighbors. We’d use construction paper and just roll it into a cone or sometimes Dixie cups with pipe cleaners for handles. You’d fill them with popcorn, candy, maybe some flowers if you had them. Then you’d sneak over to someone’s house, hang the basket on their door, knock or ring the bell, and run. If they caught you, they were supposed to kiss you! That was always the funny part—sometimes it was just silly, but other times it was your way of letting a boy know you liked him. I definitely remember leaving a basket on a boy’s door I had a crush on. It wasn’t about the real meaning of May Day ready for color and fun again. It was this sweet, creative little tradition that everyone got into.

My Analysis: I find this variant of the celebration of May Day to be particularly interesting because it really has nothing to do with labor or politics in any obvious way. The heart of the celebration is simply kids getting creative, having fun, and building community with one another. It reminds me of a tradition I and many other used to do around Halloween, Boo Baskets, where you’d leave the basket full of candy and toys on a neighbors door, ring the doorbell, and run. These fun traditions are meant to create special moments for the children that participate that last in their memories for life. That is why they are so encouraged by the parents that make them happen. It’s all about reliving that fond memory through seeing your children experiment it and in that way their joy creates joy in you. On a separate note, I do believe the themes of rebirth and rest harkened to in this celebration are evocative of the celebration of labor advancements. Without the push for a larger share of leisure time made in the early 1900’s, we would not be able to enjoy the beauty of springtime in the way we can today. This welcoming of flowers and new growth reminds those local to these celebrations to take time to smell the flowers and enjoy the simple pleasures that come with the changing seasons.

Winter Solstice Festival (冬至)

Nationality: Taiwanese-American
Age: 52
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: San Marino, California
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Taiwanese

冬至
dōng zhì
Winter Solstice Festival

“The Winter Solstice Festival is very important to the Chinese culture.  It is celebrated around December 21, the shortest day of the year.  This festival celebrates longer daylight, which means that there’s more positive energy.  For this festival, families get together and eat tangyuan.  Tangyuan are glutinous rice balls that represent reunion.  It allows families to reunite.”

My informant learned the item when she grew up in Taiwan.  It’s an important Chinese tradition that most people participate in.  My mom has been celebrating the Winter Solstice Festival ever since she was a little kid, and now my family celebrates it every year.
My family celebrates the festival on December 21.  We have a huge family reunion with my aunts and uncles.  We go to a Chinese restaurant to eat a delicious dinner, while catching up on everybody’s life.  After dinner, each family separates and goes home.  At home, my mom cooks tangyuan for my whole family.  Usually, she makes several stuffed tangyuan and many small plain ones.
My mom enjoys this celebration because she loves family get-togethers.  With the busy lives that everyone leads now, my parents do not get to see their brothers and sisters often.  This festival is a chance for everyone to reunite.  This celebration is particularly important to my mom because of the fact that we always have a family reunion on this day.  This day also allows my mom to sit down with my family while eating tangyuan.
I think that this festival is significant to Chinese culture and Chinese families.  I agree with my mom, and I think that families really don’t have very much time to sit down and talk to each other.  Even family dinners are becoming so rare in American families.  Parents are always working and children have extracurricular activities and large amounts of homework that keep them from eating at a set time.  Also, this festival shows Chinese values.  Chinese people value positive things, so the fact that after the winter solstice is over and there will be days with longer daylight is relative to their beliefs.

Eve of St. John’s Fires

Nationality: Polish
Occupation: Reference Librarian
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Polish
Language: Russian, French, English, Spanish, Latin

On the midsummer solstice, or the Eve of St. John, fires are lit and maidens wear wreaths in their hair to celebrate the longest day of the year.

 

My informant first attended this festival with her family as a little girl, and mostly remembered the beautiful wreaths all of the girls would wear in their hair.  She was also able to recall the many fires that were lit and that the men in attendance would jump across them.  Also, those in attendance would stay out all day without sleeping to celebrate the length of the day and to appreciate the sunshine.  At the end of the festival, all of the girls will throw their wreaths into the fires.

One of the most interesting aspects of this festival is that the different flowers worn in a girl’s wreath have different meanings.  My informant remembers wearing white roses, which she remembers symbolized simplicity and purity.  Perhaps the most significant flowers worn in the wreaths were lavender and myrtle, and they both represent love.  If a girl wears one of these flowers in her wreath, throws her wreath into the fire and the burning wreath is thrown into the river and recovered by a single man, the girl would be said to be engaged to that man, by tradition. Symbolically, this union represents the birth of a new relationship, and the longer days are conducive to this birth.

This festival is uniquely Polish and has been celebrated for more than a thousand years.  While mostly celebrative in the native Poland, my informant knows several Poles in other countries that also celebrate the Eve of St. John’s and she believes it’s, “because it’s romantic to look back on one’s culture.”