May Day 2012
Although I can’t be certain that the students who tossed homemade
explosives from their dorm windows last night were actually partaking in
ancient pagan tradition, I’d like to think that they were and that this event
had nothing to do with the growing tensions on our campus. It’s May Day and
when I first started conceiving this entry I thought it might be a more joyous affair,
a celebratory epistle to the blogosphere of my emergence from the dark, lonely
coldness of winter into the warm sun of spring flowers and bird song. And, in preparation,
I revisited Geoffrey Chaucer’s description of May festivities in The Court of Love (1561):
And
furth goth all the Court, both most and lest,
To feche the
floures fressh, and braunche and blome;
And namly,
hawthorn brought both page and grome.
With fressh
garlandës, in partie blewe and white,
And thaim
rejoysen in their greet delyt. (1431-35)
I love the way these lines emphasize the communal experience
and the congregation and unity of those great and small, “most and lest.” As
the remnants of winter melted away to reveal a green, living, blossoming
landscape, Chaucer portrays a court that has laid aside difference and gathered
to celebrate in shared delight.
However, one can’t dwell in idealism. There is more to May
Day than flower garlands and festive dance. Alongside the fertility and
beginning of the planting season that the festival marks, are also the
associated aspects of purging and cleansing. In the Celtic Beltane Fire
Festival, the rites of lighting sacred fires at the beginning of May served as
a precaution against sinister forces, like witchcraft, that were thought to be
particularly rampant at the beginning of summer. Similarly, during the Germanic
Walpurgis Night, celebrated on the Eve of May Day, branches were tied to cattle
and houses to keep witches away and fires were lit at the dawn to burn them
out.
I imagine our merry pranksters were probably lighting things
on fire in an effort to purge the demons of stress and the pressure witches
that fight so fiercely by semester’s end. But let’s not forget that this could
have been more. Let’s not forget that the tensions on campus between
administrators and faculty are not just felt by them. Let’s not forget that
bigotry and prejudice against those outside the religious, racial, political,
or sexual majority affects us all. Our community is weakened when we dwell in
difference. Let’s light the fires that burn out discrimination. Let’s annihilate
the sinister force of hate with our fires of love.
This May, let’s commune together. Let’s gather to celebrate
life and to purge darkness.
Works Cited &
Consulted
Chaucer,
Geoffrey. The Complete Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer Vol. 7. Ed. Rev. Walter W. Skeat 2nd ed. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1899. Print.
James, E.O. Seasonal Feasts and Festivals. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1961. Print.
