{"id":7150,"date":"2015-05-01T10:36:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T16:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7150"},"modified":"2015-05-01T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T16:39:09","slug":"a-more-innocent-may-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7150","title":{"rendered":"A More Innocent May Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-7152 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11187344_10204230389586729_3337394746975668971_o.jpg?resize=449%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"11187344_10204230389586729_3337394746975668971_o\" width=\"449\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11187344_10204230389586729_3337394746975668971_o.jpg?resize=300%2C129&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11187344_10204230389586729_3337394746975668971_o.jpg?resize=150%2C65&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11187344_10204230389586729_3337394746975668971_o.jpg?w=812&amp;ssl=1 812w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-7151\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11164593_10204230392506802_2404969967630533335_o.jpg?resize=435%2C377&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"11164593_10204230392506802_2404969967630533335_o\" width=\"435\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11164593_10204230392506802_2404969967630533335_o.jpg?resize=300%2C260&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11164593_10204230392506802_2404969967630533335_o.jpg?resize=150%2C130&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11164593_10204230392506802_2404969967630533335_o.jpg?w=832&amp;ssl=1 832w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These two photos appeared today on a community page for the county where I live. I stole them. The top photo shows schoolgirls performing a traditional round dance, while in the lower\u00a0 photo, wagons full of chairs and other items arrive as preparations continue for the May Day picnic.<\/p>\n<p>Some people reminisced about a woman known to all as &#8220;Aunt Francis&#8221; who made sure that the girls had their white dresses and who performed other charitable work for the school.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this was not a capital P-Pagan event. If you went back in your time machine and talked about &#8220;Beltane,&#8221; no one would have had a clue what you meant, even the prominent Anglo-Irish ranching family, I suspect.<\/p>\n<p>It was a secular celebration \u2014 and where did it go? Did the evolution of May Day<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Workers%27_Day\"> as a day of organized labor solidarity <\/a>\u2014and later, as the high holy day of the Soviet Union, with missile launchers rolling through Red Square, kill it completely?<\/p>\n<p>Nothing much left there to re-Paganize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These two photos appeared today on a community page for the county where I live. I stole them. The top photo shows schoolgirls performing a traditional round dance, while in the lower\u00a0 photo, wagons full of chairs and other items arrive as preparations continue for the May Day picnic. Some people reminisced about a woman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,23],"class_list":["post-7150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beltane","tag-colorado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1Rk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":872,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=872","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":0},"title":"Baca County Beltane","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the photo, the Beltane Sun (astronomical Beltane--May 5) has recently risen. When it appeared on the horizon, it fit right into the little notch in the rock just below its current position--an alignment that happens only on Beltane and Lammas.The site, on private land, is known to the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=871","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":1},"title":"This is not my Beltane post","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"But the Beltane post is coming. Maybe tomorrow. It was interesting--meaningful in a kind of low-key way.And should I mention that it is snowing? Just another springtime in the southern Colorado foothills.","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1582,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1582","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":2},"title":"Gallimaufry with Grosbeaks","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If it's Beltane, why I am still splitting firewood? Usually I observe the rhythms of the \"Celtic\" year by turning off the furnace at Beltane and relighting it at Samhain, using just supplemental wood heat otherwise. Not this year. But during a brief sunny interval yesterday morning, the first black-headed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-headed grosbeak, evening grosbeak, downy woodpecker. Photo by Chas S.  Clifton","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/BeltaneFeeder.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=869","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":3},"title":"What I Will Be Doing for Beltane","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, \"will be doing.\" Some people look at the calendar and say that Beltane is this evening and tomorrow. Others celebrated last weekend, according to the \"weekend nearest the cross-quarter day\" rule. Only by that rule, it comes next weekend.By the Sun, it falls on Saturday the 5th, as this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13347,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13347","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":4},"title":"Beltane and the Birds","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Beltane snuck((OK, \"sneaked,\" if you don't like vernacular irregular conjugations.)) up on me this year. While much of Colorado had more snow than usual, here on the creek we did not. It was cold, dry, and windy week after week. Finally, a combination of rain and wet snow brought two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":7150,"position":5},"title":"After the Beltane Festival","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kinesthetic religion: my left arm was a little sore on Sunday from helping to carry the Maypole in procession\u2014a pine trunk the size of a smallish telephone pole, ridden by a zaftig May Queen. And yes, we heard every ribald variation on \"riding the pole\" shouted from the onlookers. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7150"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7158,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150\/revisions\/7158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}