The Beltane Morris

The Beltane Morris

I have just celebrated Beltane, the Celtic festival marking the beginning of Summer on May eve/ Mayday.

The town near where I live has a huge Folk festival every Mayday Weekend and I have been down enjoying the dancers and the music and taking photographs of the participents.
I was inspired to do this artwork by the fabulous ‘Beltane Borders morris’ side who are based in Devon, England. Their dances and look are very Pagan and I was delighted to see them perform one of their energetic dances to Loreena McKennitt’s Huron : Beltane Fire Dance , a song which was itself inspired by English mayday parades and celebrations:

Beltane Border Morris website: http://www.beltaneborder.co.uk/

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“When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

We’ve been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

“A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord’s hand”

The Mummer’s Dance by Loreena McKennitt

The Beltane Morris belongs to the following groups:

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