At Winter Solstice, the light starts returning; gradually the memory of the long nights fades until the light and dark are equal on Spring Equinox. From that point on, the light returns more rapidly and on May 1st we arrive at the midpoint between equinox and Summer Solstice.
Today, my sunrise was at 5:47am CDT and my sunset will be at 7:48pm … more than 14 hours of daylight, adding 2 hours since the equinox. By the end of May, we will have added 49 more minutes of daylight.
May your May days be filled with sunlight, flowers … and kissable snouts!
(Don’t forget to hover!)
Beltane, celebrated on May 1st, is one of the cross quarter holidays from the pagan Wheel of the Year. It is “the celebration of life, the land, the union of mankind with the mother earth and the purification and rebirth of all things”.
As with all earth based holidays, we celebrate what we see around us in nature: the weather is warmer, plants and flowers are blooming, wildlife is more active and we are energized by what we see and feel. Beltane is about the sheer joy of life and taking part in it.
This advice for Beltane should sound familiar to progressives:
“Being on a spiritual path of any kind is not a part time thing. It is a way of life, and that is an everyday thing. It is not enough to make a commitment to spirit if you don’t carry that through all your thoughts and actions for the rest of the year.”
Go out and enjoy the day, leap a bonfire (carefully), dance around a maypole and listen to some stirring music from Loreena McKennitt performing the Huron Beltane Fire Dance:
Let’s reaffirm our commitment to our spiritual and progressive path and dedicate ourselves to the work that, quite clearly, still needs to be done.
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