CALENDIMAGGIO
also known as BELTANE
The purification from grain parasites, the May burning, through fumigation, including the mysteries of incense:
Around the cultivated fields during the month of May, fires were lit on the hills to purify the air, kill parasites, and dry the fields from excess moisture.
On this day the richness and splendor of Ceres are invoked under the name of Flora.
The Floralia were held from April 28 to May 3 in honor of the Goddess Flora, Goddess of flowering vegetation.
As in ancient tradition, it would be good practice to play, laugh, and make garlands of flowers.
In this festival one contemplates the richness of life that shines vigorously and returns generously to the fields and forests.
When I was little, every family prepared the wheat dolls from the previous year, dolls made of flowers and ears of grain, and placed them inside small cradles before the Divinity.
The air smelled of fire and ash, and almost all the ovens were lit. Sweets were made, dialectally called cullure, prepared with egg dough and fennel seeds. Pieces of fragrant dough, to offer to friends and neighbors as a good omen. In the nests of braided dough, very fresh eggs were set, and thus were born those dialectally called cuzzùli or cuzzòvi. The dough was the same, but to make them it was braided into the shape of a baby, whose head was an egg, symbolizing the whole and the arrival of new life in the fields or in families… the days of Beltane and thus of May were considered the best for giving birth.
Click to read this month’s oracle
Then the elder women, among them Grandmother Malva, went through the fields carrying honey, sugar, and milk to bless the future harvests and offer their gifts to the Earth… I HEARD THEM SING…
Terra Santa E Benedetta
Produci Ogni Bene Senza Fretta.
Che Tutto Il Seme Possa Maturare
Prendi Di Padre Sole
Tutto Il Calore,
Della Luna
Grande Madre
La Benedizione
Terra Guarisci E Sii Prospera In Ogni Direzione!
(Holy and Blessed Earth
Produce every good thing without haste.
May every seed be able to ripen
Receive from Father Sun
All warmth,
From the Moon
Great Mother
The blessing
Earth, heal and be prosperous in every direction!)
In Albidona, my father’s native village, the Maypole was raised…
And people tried to climb it.
To obtain the favors of the sky and gather the gifts that were lifted at its top.
Beltane and Spring Magic in MIA in the Realm of Spring
What can I say? It was an extraordinary moment: the prosperity of the womb of the Goddess was evident. During the night bonfires were kept burning, and the young promised eternal love before their families and villages, in honor of the ancient God and Goddess, who in this phase were two youths in the flower of their years.
From midnight onward a larger bonfire was lit, to allow the fire to purify the air itself and keep the darkness away, the second face of the Hidden Goddess.
Beltane, therefore, is a very long celebration: about ten days or even the entire month, depending on the culture we draw from. In these days one may celebrate love and gratitude for the Mother Goddess, the blessing of the fields to obtain prosperity, youth and new love, protection from darkness.
In every ritual, blessing and beauty are sought.
Go out and bless your possessions, from gardens to cars.
Bless your bed and your heart.
Prepare biscuits and give them to your neighbors, share abundance and it will be yours.
It is the time of love and of Sacred Sexual relationships, of mutual initiation into Existence and the Power of life. Pleasure is a source of creation, richness, and joy…
Prepare delicious foods
Do pleasant things
Experience beauty within and outside yourselves
Be creative
Michela Chiarelli
