when it comes to norse paganism Mary is associated with Freya all the flora and fauna once named for freya was then attributed to Mary. The Norse goddess Ostara is the goddess of the spring Equinox, her chariot is drawn by rabbits and both she and freya receive red painted eggs as sacrifice, which is a symbol of fertility. This is where the easter bunny comes from and the weird Idea Germans have that the easter bunny lays eggs. The egg and bunny tradition transferred over into christianity. In Russian orthodoxy the eggs are still red and you eat them on graves to celebrate resurrection, or at least my family did.
The May queen comes from the celtic tradition and is often a version of Bridgid. A lot that was associated with her as well was usurped by the christian church and passed on to Mary. Bealtaine and Ostara fall on different dates Ostara on on spring Equinox , Beltane on the night before the 1st of May.
The May king was only sacrificed if the land did not produce crops or the season was bad. The queen
is never sacreficed she is the one who sacrifices the king who is both husband and son, and trough who he is resurrected. Both king and queen were chosen for exceptional talent and beauty out of their communities. For the year of their "reign" they were fed the best food and received gift and patronage from their villages. If harvest was good they just returned to their normal lives after harvest and a straw proxy of the king was given over to the fire. If it was bad blood was seen as needed to restore the fertility of the land and the queen acting as emissary and human representation of the land takes his life to restore her vitality. It is thought that very early pagans killed the king regardless of harvest but little is really known as celts carry their tradition by word of mouth not written word, or did at that time. Any children conceived by the queen during that year were seen as lucky and touched by divinity. Any children fathered by the king the same but not in equal measure if it was not the queen who was the mother, but let's say the guy was really popular with the ladies cause everyone wanted a super baby :P
Beltane is is not a festival of sacrifice it is one of fertility. It is Samhain where sacrifices were made and the veil was said to be thin and the cycle ends. It begins again at the festival of lights and runs over into yule.
I just do not have the time to respond right now but I am so glad you cleared up the May Queen's role so that I did not have too.
In a way, if this piece is confused with her as the sacrifice I am sad, as it seems a failure. I forget that not everyone is aware of these things (I was raised in an Irish house). My piece is about the fertility (which seems obvious, and all the juicy sub-text to be played with) of the fields as the May Queen is in symbol of -- The Great Rite and the sacrifice of the seed as she lays in waiting, the old cycle now nourishment for the new. Of course I wove into this piece layers of meaning. ;)
You and Guy really have a fantastic thread going here. <3
Pieces say more than the author intended. Perhaps more than they knew they meant, at times! And such is the nature of metaphors, of mythic allusions. They don't convey all you wish them to, and they add on some more that you never intended.
Thanks for that! Though Beltane is tied to the May Day, it is not the only such occasion, and others have had sacrifice tied to them, either before or after the May Day naming has began. Wikipedia is full of that stuff.
It's risky to assume that the tradition is identical in all places, or across all times. It's rarely the case with mythic traditions that span centuries and an entire continent.
Oh I know. I was very active in my youth in the norse and celtic pagan circles. During that time ordo templi orientis, the church of satan and the OTO tried to recruit me.As a child in jamaica I was exposed to Jamaican Voodoo as someone in our household was a priestess unbeknownst to my parents. So I have a pretty good knowledge base on the subject. Or religion in general as I was once very much interested in all that and it was once my foundation ...