Fostering Community Joy with May Day Posies

Many moons ago, when our grandparents were young, May Day festivities burst to life with boughs of flowers and community dancing. Sometime in the last century this holiday has largely been forgotten across America, though many countries still honor this day with their own rich heritage of traditions. Many more moons preceding our grandparent’s childhood celebrations, May Day was a sacred pagan festival honoring the start of summer, community, and unions of all kinds.

The bonfires were lit on the hills and in the sacred groves. The bards played their lyres as the priestesses prepared offerings and libation for the sacred union. In the villages, colorful beribboned maypoles were planted in the ground as maidens with flower crowns danced. In the forests, lovers walked hand-in-hand, flushed with excitement and lust. Beltane, also known as May Day or Faery Day, is an age-old festival, full of magic, color, fun, and hope. It is a day that heralds a magical month, when the veil between realms thins, when the sun waxes almost full, and when the life-force of nature is quickening to a peak. It is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, heralding the arrival of summer as the Goddesses weds the Gods. Hand-fasting ceremonies were held: couples would leap over the fire, professing their love for each other. Human sexuality and sensuality were unabashedly honored and celebrated as a natural expression of love.

The celebrations began at sunset on April 30th with the lighting of a large bonfire. The druids would build two smoking fires using the nine sacred woods (oak, ash, rowan, alder, willow, hazel, hawthorn, birch, and holly). Farmers drove their livestock between them, blessing, purifying and protecting them as they were put out to pasture. Each family would light their own hearth with the flames of the communal fires, signifying the grand union of all in the village. Dancing, feasting, love-making, and general merry-making would commence into the night and the next day. Posies would be exchanged and a luck-inducing ritual involved writing wishes and expressions of gratitude on ribbons and hanging them from a tree.

Beltane was second to Samhain (Halloween) in terms of festivals of importance. The two festivals, on direct opposite sides of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, marked the beginning of summer and winter. In both sacred months, May and October, the veils between the worlds and realms are thinnest. Portals are opened and the sightings of faeries, strange creatures, and ancient spirits are common.

They honored the seasons, the turning of the wheel, the faery folk and spirits of nature, and the whims of the gods through ritual, ceremony, prayer, libation, bonfire, and feasting. There were no blood offerings, only gifts of bread, sweetened milk, burned wood, and love-making. And in return, blessings were bestowed upon the livestock and crops, the community, unions, and land.

I long to see a renaissance of deeply meaningful traditions that encourage human connection, like the nature-rooted festivals of the Wheel of the Year. As a gardener and forager, I find the celebrations that invoke connection to self, community and nature to be much more rewarding than those centered around commerce. This Beltane I’ll foster community connection through hosting a bonfire and surprise-gifting May Day posies to friends and family.

I want to capture the whimsy, magic, and community joy of May Day, so I crafted these beribboned paper cones to hold flowers. On the eve of Beltane I’ll surprise-gift these to neighbors, family, and friends by hanging them on them on doorknobs. For the young children in my life, I’ll pen a note from the faery folk to introduce a new element of magic in their life - a character that champions joyfulness in nature. These May Day Posey Paper Cones are quite a simple project that I pulled together with colorful ribbons, scrap paper and blossoms cut from the garden.

I’ll also host a large bonfire with all the wood gathered from our spring yard cleanup, and hang ribbons of wishes and gratitude from a tree with my Gather & Grow community friends in the Rewilding Club at our upcoming Beltane gathering. For myself, I’ll burn sacred plants to bless my land and crops, I’ll pull a card from my tarot deck, I’ll embrace the sensuality of my body, and I’ll dance to let joy move through my bones.

May Day Posey Paper Cones Craft

Supplies

2 Sheets of Paper
Scissors
Ribbon
Glue
Hole Punch

Instructions

Cut out 2 large triangles on each set of paper. Use your creativity to make scalloped edges or an edging of your choice.
Fold it into a cone shape and glue the edges of the paper together.
Punch a hole on each side of the cone at the top.
String colorful ribbon through the holes to make a handle. Use your creativity to adorn the cone with ribbons.
Cut blossoms from the garden and place them in the cones.