Massive spring flooding may have closed roads, wiped out bridges and inconvenienced dozens of residents, but it didn't stop local Wiccans from celebrating Beltane one little bit. “We just put our barn boots on and slopped our way around the Maypole” says Sheila Frank of Vestal. “It was a really fun way to connect with the Earth!”
Ms Frank, like many other local Wiccans, celebrated Beltane with lots of food, dance, drumming and the ever-important Beltane Ritual. “It's a joyous time of year. Leaves are beginning to show on trees, seeds are sprouting, the birds are back and winter is finally over for good. It's a time of renewal and fertility, of new beginnings and lusty encounters. It's an amazing time of year” says Judy Frank, Sheila's sister. Paul Glover of Vestal explains, “Beltane is a fertility holiday and the last of three Spring Sabbats. It is a time when the God and Goddess unite, bringing back life and abundance to the Earth. At Beltane, the daylight is growing much stronger and in some warmer climates, it is planting time. Here in the Northeast however, we wait until the Full Moon in June but we start our seeds indoors and bless the little seedlings during this time. And of course, we do protection spells to keep the flood waters away” Their spells must have worked, because neither the Franks nor Mr. Glover had any real damage done to their property. “I had a few small tree limbs come down and a few puddles of water in my basement, but that was the extent of it” says Mr. Glover. For more information on Beltane, visit: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=holidays&id=2765
Comments