Today Is….

Today Is …  

 

Children’s Day –  Mexico
Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day) – Netherlands
Liberation Day – Vietnam
May Day Eve  – Finland
Queen Beatrix’s Birthday – Curacao
Queen’s Birthday – Sint Maarten / St. Martin
Queen’s Day – Aruba Bonaire Saba St. Eustatius
Rincon’s Day – Bonaire
Valborgsmässoafton / King’s Birthday – Sweden
Walpurgis’ Night – Switzerland

Beltane (Northern Hemisphere) Wiccan & Witchcraft

Samhain (Southern Hemisphere) Wicca & Witchcraft

Mange-les-Morts – In the Vodou tradition, this is the day for feeding the dead, the family ancestors
whose spirits reside in govis. See also Casse Canarie, April 29.

May Eve/Walpurgisnacht

Beltane Eve/Walpurgis Nacht (Night of the Witches) – Celebrate in your own witchy way!

Voudun: Mangé les Morts (feeding the dead) – ritual offering of food to the family ancestors whose spirits reside in govis.

Zoroastrianism: Maidyozarem – feast of mid-spring. The celebration continues through May 4th.

Greek: The last day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Hekate.

In Germany, Walpurgisnacht begins at sunrise on this date and ends at sunrise on the first day of May (May Day). Birch boughs are placed on all doors and windows to protect the home from evil spirits and sorcery. Traditional bonfires and torches of rosemary and juniper are lit, and according to legend, Witches can be seen riding across the sky on broomsticks on this dark and magickal night.

On this date in the year 1988, the English Witch Alexander Sanders (also known as King of the Witches) died of lung cancer. He was gifted with psychic powers, and was the founder of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca.

Floralia and Beltane ~ Ancient Roman Floralia (Florales Ludi) was a festival from April 28 – May 2 which began in Rome in 238 B.C. Floralia was originally a Spring Festival which honors Roman Goddess of Flowers, Flora (Chloris) another manifestation of the earth-goddess which includes Fauna, Maia and Ops. The temple of this goddess was founded on this day on the Aventine. Offerings of milk and honey were made on this day and the surrounding five days, which comprise the Florifertum. The city would have been decorated in flowers, and the people would wear floral wreaths or flowers in their hair. Games would be celebrated on this day. The celebration of this day survives in many cultures where it is known as May Day.

Beltane is the Celtic festival marking the beginning of summer, where the cattle was driven between purifying fires before they were let out to graze the meadows. Also the festival of Belenus, the Celtic God of Fire and the Sun. Beltane” was Bel-fire, or fire of the Celtic God Bel (Beli, Balar, Balor, Belenus), “Bright One,” God of Light and Fire. In the Celtic tradition, Beltane was the beginning of Summer. On this date, the herds were driven to the summer pastures, where they would graze and grow fat for the coming winter.

Floralia Begins – The Romans began honored the Sabine Goddess of blossoms and spring with six days of celebrations including games, pantomimes, plays and stripteases, which went on into the night illuminated by torchlight. Everyone wore their most colorful clothes and decked themselves and their animals in flowers. Goats and hares were let loose–they represented fertility and sexuality and Venus in her role as patroness of cultivated nature. Small vegetables (one imagines cucumbers and zucchinis) were distributed as fertility tokens. Flora represented the sexual aspect of plants, the attractiveness of the flowers, and was the matron of prostitutes.

Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press, 1999
Rufus, Anneli, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994

28 – May 3:The three day Festival of Flora and Venus, or the Florialia in Rome; Goddess of Sexuality and Spring flowers.

30: Walpurgisnacht celebrated by German Witches

 

Courtesy of GrannyMoonsMorningFeast