May Day

May Day

May Day itself is associated with the maypole that is cut and brought in on the day before. Made from the wood of the birch, the tree of purification, the maypole is danced around in imitation of the twirling of the spindle used in the kindling of the Beltane fire. Rural merrymaking on May Day was absorbed into the urban landscape after the Industrial Revolution as the socialist Labor Day celebrated in many countries today. The flowers, flags, garlands and maybushes (hawthorns) that bedecked country cottages and carts were transformed into the urban May Day banners of trade unions and political movements. Beltane’s sigil is the Northern Tradition Tree of Life with six movements. Beltane’s sigil is the Northern Tradition Tree of Life with the side branches, resembling a maypole and maybushes.

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick