We are back dancing .... modestly .... with children around the Maypole

 The Maypole dance is a Celtic Beltaine tradition. Covid blocked us on May 1st, so we raised the Maypole for France's National Day July 14th. Here is Claudine, beautifully dressed and surrounded by happy children holding ribbons. We used recorded Morris Music from Essex to provide a suitably plodding beat as we all marched our ribbons around the Maypole, or Maibaum, or Mât enrubanné. The bored adolescent on her smartphone illustrates the age differences. Old and Young had fun; but 300 years ago, she would have been holding a ribbon with the best of them, with us watching!

Beltaine is a Celtic Festival of Fire and Maypole dancing for the Merry Month of May.

 And so we celebrated Beltaine 2021 on the Friday night of April 30th, which was considered the Night of Beltaine when our ancestors considered that a day began at dusk. Of course, we our celebration was Covid-restricted: only 6 people allowed to meet, and no travel allowed after 7pm. So our friends Mikael Morice and Sylvie Le Moel welcomed us to their home, where they built a maypole for six ribbons, and fire to warm six people: who drank Beltaine champagne and ate Beltaine oysters. Yummy. 

I wore the kilt, but our dancing was limited to skipping around the Maypole and wrapping it in coloured ribbons. When pandemic restrictions ease, we hope to use it for children's entertainment and education.

Beltaine is one of the great Celtic events - taken over by the Catholic Church in Germany as Sankt Walpurgisnacht:  the nun St Walpurga was born in Devon, and she carried her English version of the gospel to convert Germanic heathens. No one in England has ever heard of her!  In France, the cleansing fires of Beltaine became the Feast of St Jean (John) on June 24th. We can still celebrate the Start of the Season of Light, the end of the 40 days of Nauruz (the Persian New Year that our Indo-European ancestors celebrated, starting with the Spring Equinox on March 21st). And so we did. 

We danced, we read poetry, we heard music (notably Gounod's "Faust") and we ate good food, washed down with a magnum of rosé wine. We would have wanted this to be a celebration for the Jumelage, the Town Twinning between Pordic, our Breton village, and the Cornish town of Hayle which we cannot visit because of the pandemic..... and we could not celebrate with the 40-odd French members of the Pordic-Hayle Jumelage. We celebrated with the president, our friend Claudine Mizzon, vice-president (my wife Michelle) and with our hosts who are also Jumelage Board Members. With their talented 15-year-old son Pierre. So I wish everyone a very joyful Merry Month of May. And next year maybe we can celebrate Beltaine like this, with 100 people.

 

Here are Breton Druids celebrating BENTAINE and the Season of Light 

deep in the Forêt de Brocéliande, a place that is filled with Arthurian legends