High Days and Holy Days in May

1 May Day

If the arrival of May makes you feel a bit giddy and irrepressible, you are not alone. May was the month when the ancient pagans used to get up to all sorts! The Romans held their festival to honour the mother-goddess Maia, goddess of nature and growth. (May is named after her.) The early Celts celebrated the feast of Beltane, in honour of the sun god, Beli.

For centuries in 'Olde England' the people went mad in May. After the hardship of winter, and hunger of early spring, May was a time of indulgence and unbridled merriment. One Philip Stubbes, writing in 1583, was scandalised: "for what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slabbering one of another, is not practised?"

Henry VIII went 'maying' on many occasions. Then folk would stay out all night in the dark rain-warm thickets, and return in the morning for dancing on the green around the May pole, archery, vaulting, wrestling, and that evening, bonfires.

The Protestant reformers took a strong stand against May Day - and in 1644 Christmas and May Day were abolished together. Many May poles came down - only to go up again at the Restoration, when the first May Day of King Charles's reign was "the happiest Mayday that hath been many a year in England", according to Pepys. A truly enormous May pole went up that year in London - 134 feet high, right where the church of St Mary lies near Westminster. It was the highest Maypole in history, but it disappeared in the interests of science: in 1717 Sir Isaac Newton took it away to support the most modern and powerful telescope in the world.

May Day to most people today brings vague folk memories of a young Queen of the May decorated with garlands and streamers and flowers, a May Pole to weave, Morris dancing, and the intricacies of well dressing at Tissington in Derbyshire.

May Day is a medley of natural themes such as sunrise, the advent of summer, growth in nature, and - since 1833 - Robert Owen's vision of a millennium in the future, beginning on May Day, when there would be no more poverty, injustice or cruelty, but in harmony and friendship. This is why, in modern times, May Day has become Labour Day, which honours the dignity of workers. And until recently, in communist countries May Day processions were in honour of the achievement of Marxism.

There has never been a Christian content to May Day, but nevertheless there is the well known 6 a.m. service on the top of Magdalen Tower at Oxford where a choir sings in the dawn of May Day.

An old May carol includes the lines:

The life of man is but a span,
it flourishes like a flower
We are here today, and gone tomorrow
- we are dead within an hour.

There is something of a sadness about it, both in words and tune, as about all purely sensuous joy. For May Day is not Easter, and the joys it has known have always been earth-bound and fleeting.

16 Rogation Sunday

Rogation means an asking of God - for blessing on the seed and land for the year ahead. It is appropriate in any emergency, war, plague, drought or foul weather.

The practice began with the Romans, who invoked the help of the gods Terminus and Ambarvalia. In those days a crowd moved in procession around the cornfields, singing and dancing, sacrificing animals, and driving away winter with sticks. The wanted to rid the cornfields of evil.

About 465 the Western world was suffering from earthquake, storm and epidemic. So Mamertius, Bishop of Vienne, aware of the popular pagan custom, ordered that prayers should be said in the ruined or neglected fields on the days leading up to Ascension. With his decision, 'beating the bounds' became a Christian ceremonial.

Rogation-tide arrived in England early in the eighth century, and became a fixed and perennial asking for help of the Christian God. On Rogation-tide, a little party would set out to trace the boundaries of the parish. At the head marched the bishop or the priest, with a minor official bearing a Cross, and after them the people of the parish, with schoolboys and their master trailing along. Most of them held slender wands of willow.

At certain points along the route - at well-known landmarks like a bridge or stile or ancient tree, the Cross halted, the party gathered about the priest, and a litany or rogation as said, imploring God to send seasonable wealth, keep the corn and roots and boughs in good health, and bring them to an ample harvest. At one point beer and cheese would be waiting.

In the days when maps were neither common nor accurate, there was much to be said for 'beating the bounds' - still very common as late as the reign of Queen Victoria. Certainly parish boundaries rarely came into dispute, for everyone knew them. (Do you know yours today?)

20 Ascension Day - Forty Days with the Risen Christ

May continues the season of Eastertide, the period of 40 days between Easter and Ascension Day, which falls this year on Thursday, 20 May.

It may seem crazy to call it Eastertide when Easter is clearly over! - but if you look in your diary, you will find the Sundays are numbered Easter 1, Easter 2, and so forth. These are the forty days during which the Risen Christ appeared again and again to his disciples, following his death and resurrection.

The Gospels give us little of Christ's teachings and deeds during those forty days. Jesus was seen by numerous disciples: on the road to Emmaus, by the Sea of Galilee, in houses, etc. He strengthened and encouraged his disciples, and at last opened their eyes to all that the Scriptures had promised about the Messiah. Jesus also told them that as the Father had sent him, he was now going to send them - to all corners of the earth, as his witnesses.

Eastertide ends with the Ascension of Christ.

Understanding the church year

With Whit Sunday, 30 May, we begin the second half of the Christian Calendar Year.

During the first half of the year (Advent to Whitsuntide) the Church's focus has been on what God has revealed to Man, particularly through the history of the Christ becoming man and of his divine deeds on earth.

Now , in this second half of the year (from Whitsuntide back to Advent) our attention is focused on Man's response to God - through faith, through commitment, through loving deeds and through trying to understand Christ's transforming work within each individual man and woman.

So the smaller festivals of this second half of the year give us a magnificent opportunity. As we remember the lives of different saints down the centuries, we too can seek to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.

30 Pentecost/ Whit Sunday

On Ascension Day the sequence of events that began at Easter was completed. Christ ascended to his Father in heaven, and now it was the turn of the Holy Spirit to come down to earth (the story is found in Acts 2: 1 – 8). Pentecost is the feast on which the Church celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. With his enabling power, the Church was soon off to a flying start, an incredibly dramatic expansion in its earliest, formative period.

So no wonder Pentecost Sunday is a major feast in the Christian year. In fact, in many Christian traditions, Pentecost comes second in importance only to Easter itself. Pentecost is sometimes called 'Whitsun' (literally, 'white Sunday') on account of the tradition of the clergy wearing white robes on this day.

The Holy Spirit is of major importance to Christian thought and life. When we read through the book of Acts, we find evidence of his presence everywhere – guiding, encouraging, and empowering the apostles. In more recent times, the rise of the charismatic movement within the worldwide church has led to an increased awareness of the powerful role of the Spirit in each of our Christian lives.

Pentecost falls on the fiftieth day after Easter, when, according to Luke's account, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in Jerusalem, who were gathered there on Jesus' instructions. ("Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised.")

Even so, the Holy Spirit's arrival astounded everyone. The disciples certainly did not expect a sound like a mighty rushing wind from heaven, tongues of fire coming to rest on their heads, and the gift of being able to praise God in languages unknown to them.

Luke's description of Pentecost focuses on the impact of the event on people: the disciples were empowered to preach the gospel, and to break down the barriers of language separating them and their audiences. Theologically, the coming of the Spirit thus occupies a significant role in the scheme of salvation, in that it can be seen as a reversal of the 'tower of Babel' (Genesis 11: 1 –32).

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