May Day!

It's that time of year again! May Day at Many Hand's House!

Though Ostara heralds spring; for me, May Day is what I look forward to the most. By this time, it's warmer, and we can usually ditch the winter coats!

At least this year the weather was lovely and we ditched all the coats! lol  Unfortunately I got no picture of me this year, and I rather liked the lovely turquoise dress I was wearing.

Singing the May Pole is always easier when we have drummers!

In fact, any party at Many Hands House is rife with music! Many of the folks that come are musicians and bring their instruments to play and sing. Of course, the kids love to join in. ;)

Blessed May Day to you!

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day!

Beltane is an important celebration around here! One of my covenmates has had a May Day celebration for years at their home. Lots of people come, and we dance a wonderful pole. It's often a little windy, and it certainly was yesterday. That didn't stop anyone.

 
We were asked to wear flower wreaths or greenman masks. I made ours from felt. I don't have many flowers in our yard, and we had nothing blooming at the right time to make a wreath from real flowers.



Of course we also leapt the bonfire... well the fire wasn't burning super high. No one needs to get burnt, especially the children. Kevin jumped a couple times!

Good food, good friends. Such a great time!

44 Days of Witchery - Day 14

Photo by The Pagan Family

44 Days of Witchery - Day 14: A favorite pagan holiday

I love them all. Really. But my top two favorites are Samhain and... you guessed it, Beltane.

Beltane is made of awesome. The days are (usually) warmer and greener. It's close to my birthday (April 24). My mood always takes a huge upswing in April and May.

Usually friends of ours invite us to their big Beltane celebration, complete with Maypole and fire-leaping. (babies were recently born after being conceived right after that fire-leaping, awesome!)

I remember as a kid we celebrated May Day with May baskets that we made ourselves - myself and cousins... none of our neighbors knew what May Day was. Family called it our old German heritage... making our own baskets and filling them with little gifts. Then sneaking up to our cousin's door and leaving the basket there, ringing the bell and hiding. My Aunt Deloris was an expert at coming up with the most awesome recycled baskets from plastic milk jugs and other household cast-offs... and this was more than 30 years ago, before "re-purposing" was trendy.