Blue Tigers Eye

May Day has been celebrated for hundreds of years with bonfires, dancing, May Baskets and dancing the Maypole! In many traditions this is the holiday that celebrates the union of the God and the Goddess, a fertility celebration for the up and coming year. There are many different Pagan traditions that celebrate this fine day in a multitude of different ways.

In some Wiccan traditions this is the time that the May Queen is crowned as a representation of the goddess Flora, the May King is crowned as a representation of the God Cernunnos, Jack of the Green or the Green Man; whichever suits your tradition. The dance of the Maypole represents of the unity of the May King and Queen.  The Maypole is a tall pole, an obvious phallic symbol of the male that is decorated with hanging ribbons and flowers, obvious symbols of the female.  During the unity dance, males and females each grab an end of a ribbon, and with the males dancing in one direction and the females in the opposite direction, weaving in and out of each other the ribbons are wrapped into an intricate pattern.  When the dance is finished, the maypole is removed from the ground and saved until Yule when it will be burned.

Jumping the balefires is another wide spread tradition that consists of cleansing and purifying yourself in the smoke of the fire by leaping over the top it.  In the Celt tradition cattle were driving through the smoke of the balefires and blessed with fertility blessings for the coming year.

May baskets are another age old pagan tradition that consists of filling decorated baskets with flowers and dropping them at a neighbors doorstep for goodwill.

Sometimes, just decorating a wreath for your hair and planting some seeds in the flower garden is the perfect way of honoring the May Day tradition

Personally, making love in my garden creates the perfect garden blessing for the May Day tradition .

No matter how you celebrate, enjoy your day and may it fill you with many blessings for the up coming year!