May Day/Beltane

May 1st went down like this: Hannah, Christine (a mutual friend), and I went out to Kiwanis Park and laid claim to the Pavilion.  While Hannah and Christine gathered pine cones to make a large circle, I dug a hole in the ground for the maypole.  Our maypole was a sawed into shape young pine tree that someone had cut down at some point and we gave it new life today and since that is part of what Beltane is all about it felt particularly apropos.

We put a wreath at the top of the pole and used feathers, ribbon, and dangling plastic stars to decorate, then we attached three ribbons (one for each of us).  It was still such a naked pole at this point, just barely capped off with our little decorations.  There were several craft projects available and one of those was to make wreaths for our hair.  I made a sort of feathery atrocity with a fake bird attached to it and a crap ton of ribbon streaming down the sides of my face.  Gorgeous... in some dimension I am sure.  Hannah's and Christine's were much cleaner and both had long various ribbons all streaming down at the back.  These were really pretty.

The first round of pole weaving went well enough (we only did half way down to start) and during our second craft project, which was making rustic wall hangings with old keys, ribbon, wire, and plastic bracelets, mom and dad arrived with dinner rearing and ready to make a fire.  The fire was small at this point, just a little pile of coals and lighter fluid, but it did its job and we ate heartily of meats and cheeses.  After dinner the folks headed out and we three girls moved the fire from the little grill to the large park grill and we got that sucker going nice and big.  Fire is a very important aspect to Beltane and it wouldn't have felt right without it.  While the fire ate up little broken up sticks and branches and pine needles, we did a few real basic tarot readings.  Christine had the absolute best way to describe tarot that I've ever heard.  She told Hannah that it was basically a cheap form of therapy.  And it really is.  Tarot doesn't determine your future or your now, it taps into your subconsciousness and gives you new perspective and maybe makes you aware of your true feelings on a matter or gives you guidance.  The saying goes, indecisive people never choose until you pick it for them and then they .  One of the decks we played with was really wonderfully illustrated and if i could get a large print of the Death card I would hang that on my wall.  I loved it.

We finished up the maypole, cleaned up the area, dispersed lemon and orange slices about the area as a polite thank you to the forest and creatures for letting us bother them all day, and then we headed home.  The maypole, now gorgeously wrapped in purple, pink, and teal ribbons, is sitting outside on our back patio - I'm thinking of anchoring it in a planter and planting some yellow flowers around it.  For our evening craf we had planned to do henna and coloring book pages but we were pretty spent.  After an hour or so of lazing about in the bedroom, we watched the Sherlock Holmes sequel and called it a night.  Happy May Day.