Cross-Quarter Musings

The cross-quarter day between Vernal Equinx and Summer Solstice is usually called Beltane and is still sometimes celebrated on May first, "May Day," with maypole dances and festivities. It is a time when days lengthen, greening begins, wet pastures are reopened and baby animals are born. Northern Europe's pastoral population celebrated the changing of the seasons with the growing light and growth because their very lives depended on the fertility of their plants and animals. 

Historically, bonfires were lit during the night to recalland rekindle the sun and to purify the community and animals which had spent all winter cooped up indoors. On the astrologically correct Beltane (perhaps "bright fire" or "fires of Bel" after the Celtic sun god, Belenus), the sun appears as if on the tip of the only decorated stone in the Beltony Stone Circle in NW Ireland. This year that falls on May 5th at 6:13am.