| The Moon Path Chapter of Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) will host a MayDay Festival, Family Picnic, and Sun Celebration Noon - Dark, Saturday, April 25, 2009, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft. Lauderdale, 3970 NW 21st Ave. (between Commercial and Oakland Park), Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33309, 954-484-6734 Admission is canned or non-perishable food items, to be donated to the Cooperative Feeding Program of Broward County The public is invited to attend the May Day Festival and Sun Celebration which will conform to, and celebrate the ancient Druid tradition. Workshop and some events will be held inside in Air Conditioning. Bring your own picnic food and drink. Bring your drums and percussion instruments for the drum circle and ritual. Bring Ribbons for the May Pole. Fun and Games for kids of all ages - Picnic (BYOF/D InOrOutside) Pagan Education - Networking with other Pagans Children's Program - Workshop Class Vendors in air conditioned acilities: (Ceramics,Drums,FoodHennaArtist,Jewlry,MassageTherapist,Psychic,Reiki Healing,RuneReading, Sarongs,Soaps,TarotReading,T-Shirts,VariousMerchandise) 12PM-Walking the Labyrinth is an outside activity 1PM -Story Telling - Pee Wee Pagans - Teen Room 2PM -Drum Circle (bring your own drums/musical instruments) 3PM -Witch's Mark' - Pagan Band outside on patio 3PM -Sadie of the Hawk: The Queen of the May will select her King; May Pole Dancing with ribbons 5:00PM -Raffle Drawing 5:15PM -Pre Ritual Grounding Meditation - The Luna Road Faerie Troupe 5:30PM -May Day Sun Celebration ceremony Anyone wishing to stay and participate is welcome. Visit the CUUPS Moon Path Chapter website for details on pagan activities. http://MoonPathCUUPS.org . The full moon in the month of May is called the Flower Moon. This year the Flower Moon is MAY 09, 2009 4:01 Universal Time. The Year is divided into Quarters by the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and the Fall Equinox. Halfway beteen the Solstice and and Equinox is the Cross Quarter. These Quarters and Cross Quarters are called the Wheel of the Year of the Sun. MayDay (Beltaine) is one of the 4 Cross Quarter Sun Celebrations in the Wheel of the Year. It is halfway between the two Quarter Sun Celebrations, Spring Equinox (Ostara) and Summer Solstice (Litha). Exactly opposite November 1 (Samhain (SOW-in/Ireland) ) on the wheel of the year. This year the Cross Quarter is on May 5, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus but it is always celebrated on April 30/May 1. In the highlands of Scotland and England all the Cross Quarters are considered times of being able to cross over to the "other world". This is the time considered by some to be the start of spring. The month of May was named after either the Roman fertility Goddess Maia, or the Greek Goddess Maia, mother of Apollo and Artemis; originally a mountain nymph, later identified as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph. The ancient Egyptians had both a lunar and seasonal (solar) 365 day calendar, which was divided into three seasons of four months each. Each month consisted of 30 days (3 weeks of 10 days per week). Five days called 'Heriu-renpet' were added to the solar calendar at the end of the three seasons for the birth of the Goddesses/Gods. An extra day would be added as needed. The heliacal rise of Sirius just before dawn was an extremely important event for the Ancient Egyptians. The first visibility of the star Sirius on the morning sky, called heliacal rising, fell close to the Inundation of the Nile and was the beginning of the Ancient Egyptian solar year. The first new moon after the heliacal rising was the begining of the lunar year. 3,000 years ago the heliacal rising was in early July, currently it is around August 1st. Each lunar month was named after an Ancient Egyptian Goddess, God, or major festival. In a year with 13 new moons, the 13th lunar month was added to the end of the year. The Ancient Egyptian (Kemet) ninth lunar month from April 25, 2009 to May 23, 2009 is Hnsw (PA-n-)/xnsw/Pachons and is Sacred to Khonsu/Khensu the falcon headed moon God who is the decider of the life span, also the God of time, knowledge, healing, and giver of oracles. The Ancient Egyptian (Kemet) tenth lunar month from May 24, 2009 to June 21, 2009 is Hnt-Htj/pA-n-Int/Payni and is Sacred to Khenthy/Kentamenti/Khenti/Khenti-Amenti/Khenti-Amentiu/, the wolf/funerary God who embodied all deceased kings buried at Abydos and assimilated with Anibus and then Osiris. The Ancient Egyptian nineth solar month from March 29 to April 27 is Shomu/Shemu I (low-water) when crops were harvested. The Ancient Egyptian tenth solar month from April 28 to May 27 is Shomu/Shemu II (low-water) when crops were harvested. The ancient Hellenic lunar months would start on the new moon and a new day would start at sunset. The new year would start on the new moon before the Autumn Equinox. Except for Athens which used the new moon following the Summer Solstice. I use the Autumn Equinox and the lunar month of Boedromion for my calculations for the new year. In a year with 13 new moons, the 13th lunar month was inserted between the 4th (Poseideon) and 5th (Gamelion) lunar months around December/January. A different Goddess/God was honored for the full moon of the month. The Ancient Hellenic eighth lunar month from April 25, 2009 to May 23, 2009 is Mounykhion and the full moon is dedicated to Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of beauty, love, and spring; There were many festivals in the month of Mounykhion. The Mounykhia festival on the 16th day honors Artemis as Moon Goddess and Lady of the Beasts; There is a procession in which the people carry Amphiphontes (Shining-all-round), round cakes in which dadia (little torches) are stuck, much like the cakes offered to Hekate; later these are offered to the Artemis with a prayer. The Ancient Hellenic ninth lunar month from May 24, 2009 to June 21, 2009 is Thargelion and the full moon is dedicated to Apollon the God of music. The Thargelia is a harvest(First-fruit Offering) festival for Apollo (as a guardian of crops), it has two parts, purification and offering. The 6th is the first day. This is the birthday of Apollos's sister, Artemis and is a day of purification. Two (preferably unattractive) men, the Pharmakoi (Scape-Goats), who have been fed by the people, are led around the city, and then driven away by fig-branches and (poisonous) squill-bulbs (used for purification). One Pharmakos wears a necklace of black figs, which represent the men of the city, and the other wears one of white figs, representing the women. Then the second day, the 7th which is Apollos's birthday, is for a first-fruits offering to the God; the Thargelos is made by boiling corn and other vegetables in a pot. There are separate hymn singing contests for men's and boys' choirs; the winners receive a tripod, which they then dedicated to the God. The Roman calendar was originally lunar. The first days was the kalends (from which the modern word calendar is derived), the first quarter was the nones, and the full moon was the ides. A crown of flowers was hung over the hearth, and sacrifices were made to the Lares, or household gods on the kalends, nones, ides, and all feast days. The waning moon was the unlucky part of the month and had no name. The days were numbered backward from the first of the next month. The ancient Roman solar calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter, the unmarked "Terror Time". The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome circa 700 BC, added the two months Ianuarius "January" and Februarius "February". This made the Roman year 355 days long. He also moved the beginning of the year from Marius to Januarius. The month of Aprilis, the modern April, was originally the second month of the Roman civil year. The origin of the name Aprilis is unknown. The poet Ovid suggested that it was derived from the word aperrtum, open, as in the opening of the season of spring. There is also a similarity to the word apricus, which means sunny or warmed by the sun. The month of Maius, the modern May, was originally the third month of the Roman civil year. The month of Maius is dedicated to the Goddess Maia. Maius is derived from the name of the Goddess. MayDay is a festival of Rebirth, a celebration of the re-awakening of the earth, the opening of the flowers, the rebirth of all that had 'died' throughout the Winter's cold rule. It is traditionally a fertility festival, an encouragement for the crops to begin growing and the cattle to give birth to the next generation. MayDay is a time of community and opening ourselves to those around us, for the good of the Craft and the community in general. The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane (in its most popular Anglicized form), which is derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine' or the Scottish Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god Baal. MayDay is also known as: Bealtaine; Bealtinne; Beal-tine; Bealtuinn; Beltan; Beltain; Beltein; Beltine; Bel-tien, Nos Galan MaiS; Shenn da Boaldyn; Walburga. May Day is celebrated on or around May 1. At this time, life is renewing itself. The Land represented by the Goddess is now ripe and fertile and the Young God expresses His Love for Her. This is a time of joyous reveling as the first flowers of Summer are gathered in Their Honor. Birds and animals are mating. In the fields, newly planted seeds are beginning to grow. Great fires are lit honoring the fertility God Belenos. Some leap the fires to show the exuberance of the season. This is the time to fertilize your dreams with action. It is legend that children conceived at Mayday were gifted by the gods. Nos Galon Mai ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar year, the month of May. In ancient Italy, Cardea, the White Goddess, was celebrated as the Queen of May. Cardea presided over marriage and childbirth and she carried a protetive hawthorn bough. The Celtic Blodeuwedd, wife of Lleu was also associated with hawthorn and celebrated as the Queen of May. MayDay is a powerful holiday, filled with legend and tradition that goes back farther than most recorded history. One of the most famous is probably the Maypole, a tall pole of oak adorned with a hawthorne garland and many brightly colored ribbons. The ribbons would be held by the many participants who danced their way around the Maypole in opposing directions, weaving in and out until the people were almost arm in arm and the Maypole was woven with bright springtime colors from top to bottom. The Maypole is actually a symbol for fertility of the land, and the ribbons being wound represent the movement of energies between the Earth and the Sky (The Goddess and the God) that causes the plants to grow and the world to re-awaken. The Maypole, associated with May festivals, is tracable to an ancient Greek figure known as a herm, named for Hermes. The earliest form of a herm was simply a wooden column upon which a ritual mask was hung. The Maypole, a phallic symbol, represents the masculine. The soft, colorful ribbons represent the feminine. The union of the two symbolizes the union of the God and Goddess. In ancient Egypt there was the Dejed-piler resembling a stylized tree. The djed pillar (pronounced Zed) is a khemetic hieroglyphic symbol which stands for stability. It represents the backbone of Osiris which is the greek form of the khemetic Asir. The Djed was raised at various times, during the end of the A'aperti's reign & the coronation of a new one, and also during the winter solstice. The common people raised the djed pillar during times of failing crops to ensure fertility which has to do with Asir being a Netjer of resurrection. During the raising of the djed festival the A'aperti or the pharaoh would run a certain course to prove that he was still fit to rule. It was decorated with a Tet Knot (bow) and Dejeds (flanges) to represent the union of Isis and Osiris. The eight Sun Celebrations in the Wheel of the Year are: Celtic Name Druid Name Samhain November 1 (Cross Quarter) Yule December 20-22 (Winter Solstice) Alban Arthan Imbolc Feburary 2 (Cross Quarter) Ostara March 20-22 (Spring Equinox) Alban Eiler Beltaine May 1 (Cross Quarter) Litha June 20-22 (Summer Solstice) Alban Hefin Lammas August 1 (Cross Quarter) Mabon September 20-22 (Autumn Equinox) Alban Elfed |
| Beltain Press Release |
|
 |
 |
 |