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The custom of celebrating May
Day, May 1, can be traced back to
ancient spring rituals connected with fertility and growth. Phallic
worship, or phallicism is an ancient ritual practice that refers to the
veneration of the phallus, a representation or symbol of the male
generative organ. The phallus as a symbol of germination has been in some
form a part of the symbolic and ritual structures of various religions.
Although the worship of the phallus has never constituted the dominant
form or the totality of the religious meaning of any group, the practice
often includes a similar veneration for representations of the female
generative parts as well. Examples from antique tradition appear in the
ancient Greek myths of Demeter and Eleusis and in the Roman cult of
Priapus. In Greek mythology, Priapus was the son of Aphrodite and
Dionysus. Portrayed as a grotesque little man with a huge phallus, he was
associated particularly with fertility rites and protected crops and
gardens from animals, birds, and thieves. Plutarch, in the following
quotation from Numa Pompilius, tells us of the ritual significance found
in the "merry month of May":
"The next is called May from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom it
is sacred;"
Maia, one of seven nymphs called the Pleiades, in Greek mythology, (In
Roman mythology, they were called the Vergiliae.) who were the daughters
of Atlas and Pleione: Maia, Electra, and Taygete, each of whom bore a
child to Zeus; Celaeno, who bore Poseidon's child; Merope, wife of
Sisyphus; Sterope, who bore Ares' child; and Alcyone. While hunting with
Artemis, they encountered Orion, who pursued them until Zeus engineered
their escape by turning them into a constellation. Maia was the mother of
Mercury through her dalliance with Zeus and is frequently portrayed as the
goddess of plant growth and has been associated with the Mother Nature or
Earth Mother worship that persists in many cultures over the centuries.
Although theoretically superseded by the Christian celebration of Easter,
the holiday has survived in various forms.
Saint Walburga, b. c. 710, d. Feb. 25, 779, often called Saint Walburga of
Heidenheim, was an English Catholic missionary, born in Sussex. She was
the sister of the English missionary Saint Willibald (700? - 86). about
748 she was summoned to Germany by the English Benedictine missionary
Saint Boniface, and in 754 she became abbess of the Benedictine religious
house in Heidenheim. Her feast day is usually celebrated on May 1, and the
preceding night, formerly the date of a pagan festival commemorating
Waldborg, a pagan fertility goddess, and marking the beginning of summer,
is known as Walpurgis Night. This pagan festival had become associated
with witchcraft, as it was believed that on Walpurgis Night witches met
with the devil in certain places, especially the Harz Mountains in
Germany. The most celebrated witch's meeting place in ancient and medieval
Europe was Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains of Germany, the
scene of the Sabbat so vividly described in Goethe's Faust and in Modest
Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain." The two most important
Sabbats were held on the night of April 30 (Roodmas or Walpurgis Night)
and the night of October 31 (Halloween). Sabbats were celebrated also on
the nights of July 31 (Lammas) and February 1 (Candlemas) and probably on
other nights.
In 15th-century England, May Day festivities were celebrated with dances
around the Maypole and were also tied to the figure of Robin Hood, whom
local youths impersonated in Morris Dances and dramatic performances.
Performed on May 1 around a gaily painted pole decorated with streamers,
garlands, and dyed eggshells, the Maypole dance was an annual medieval
celebration of spring's return. Having trimmed themselves and the pole
with green-sprigged flowers, rural dancers cavorted around it, hoping that
their exuberant offering to nature would yield fertile crops and cattle in
the coming year. Dancers began the custom of braiding ribbons around the
pole during the 19th century and still maintain this custom. The dance
that survives today in England preserves the steps and sometimes the
spirit of the original but none of its ritual significance. Sacred
marriages frequently have formed part of the fertility ritual; the
effectiveness of this symbolic union at times depended on the chastity of
the participants. Ritual prostitution, human and animal sacrifice, and
displays of phallic symbols were also sometimes believed to stimulate
fertility. Similar rites to ensure fertility existed in pagan Rome, in the
phallic festivals of India and Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and
Mexico. The Christian Easter and Jewish Passover observances include
corresponding symbols in proximity to May Day. The Grail romances are
believed by some scholars to be the fragmentary records of the secret
rituals of a fertility cult. Many of these rites are recalled in the folk
traditions of various European nations. Andre Leroi-Gourhan, the French
prehistorian, has found not only literal representations of the phallus
but also signs and symbols of male and female worship in Upper Paleolithic
art. This symbolism tends to be prevalent in agricultural societies where
woman is seen as corresponding to the earth and man to the seed giver, but
it is not limited to such societies. In traditional non agricultural
societies of the South American Indians and of the Australian Aborigines
symbolic phallicism is highly developed. As a public ritual expression and
enactment, phallic worship is still found among the folkloric practices of
various societies of India, Japan, and Central Europe. In a number of
preliterate societies the role of the god was combined with that of the
king, and the fertility of the land and people was linked with the king's
state of perfection and purification.
Mother Earth's nature, ever present in our brief travels over Her surface,
and occasionally throwing things off balance just to keep us alert and in
awe of the cyclical process of chaos and order, inspired me to write an
ominous and dark lullaby (berceuse) in an unusual time signature (5/4).
It's just my "sprinkling for the May Queen" . |