BELTANE Celtic Festival of the Earth's Rebirth by Rel Davis Wednesday is May Day. Beltane. Around the country, thousands of people will be acting like a bunch of savages acted two thousand years ago. It's really quite ridiculous, when you think about it. Here we are in South Florida and we celebrate all these festivals that were originally meaningful to a bunch of bronze-age warriors who lived in the north of Europe. Easter was the first of spring. Yule was the coldest part of the winter. May Day, or Beltane, was the beginning of summer. To the Celts. Two thousand years ago. In England. It all made sense at one time. It doesn't really make a lot of sense nowadays. Celebrating the earth's rebirth on May first in South Florida is kind of dumb. The earth never went into hibernation down here! And summer never really ended. We've had lots of flowers at our place all winter long. The bougainvillea never stopped blooming. Our passion-flowers -- that blossom only in the summertime -- came out in force more than a month ago. And while our cascade lilies just began to open up a few days ago -- in a vast waterfall of crimson -- that's hardly a sign of beginning summer. Long ago, our ancestors had festivals that were meaningful to them, relating to the seasonal changes of the year. They were close to nature. They were primarily farming people. When the seeds were planted, it was time to celebrate. When the first flowering heads appeared, it was a time to rejoice. When the crops were harvested, it was a perfect excuse for another party. Today, many people still celebrate those ancient festivals -- as if they had meaning to us in the same way they had meaning to our ancestors. We do this because we are no longer close to nature. We have had to borrow other people's festivals from other times simply because we don't have the imagination required to create our own festivals. Two thousand years ago, most people in the world didn't celebrate Beltane at this time of year. Depending on where they lived, most of them (at least in Europe) probably celebrated some form of "first flower" festival, but the time for the holiday would depend on when the "first flowers" appeared. Similarly, harvest festivals would depend on when the harvest came in -- and what crops were to be harvested. If you raised apples, your harvest festival would most likely be at a different time of year than if you raised potatoes. If you raised grapes in the south of France, harvest would come considerably earlier than if you produced Pinot Noir for champagne in the north of France. Each culture developed its own holidays depending on the seasonal reality of its environment. Here in South Florida, the Native Americans have a Corn Festival each year. Up in Montana, the Sioux have their Sun Dances at the end of each summer. Only when a culture becomes isolated from its world, and from the realities of nature, does it begin to rigidify its rituals. In our Judeo-Christian system, holidays are rigidly set by the calendar, and have no relevance to our day-to- day life. A Christian in Africa or Australia will celebrate Christmas -- that ancient mid-winter festival -- at exactly the same time of the year as a Christian in northern Europe, where it makes some sense. In Equatorial Africa, there is no winter. In Australia, December 25 comes in the middle of summer. What's the purpose there of a mid-winter festival? Modern pagans, regrettably, are no different. Eight festivals -- erroneously called "sabbats" -- represent the eight solar divisions of the year. Each one of the eight quarters and cross- quarters relates to an ancient agricultural holiday that was meaningful in parts of northern Europe at one time. While modern pagans talk about following ancient pre-patriarchal systems, which were lunar in nature and which honored the feminine in nature, many of them ironically base their holidays on the solar cults which initially overthrew the peaceful agrarian civilizations. The Celts were war-like Bronze-age patriarchs -- part of the second-stage invasions that brought about the insane world we live in today. They glorified war and they honored the strong male conqueror. If we are to re-create the ancient civilizations, we must also re-create all our own festivals. We need to get more in touch with nature -- learn to listen to the wind in the trees and hear its messages, to watch the moving clouds and read their stories, and to feel the pulsing tides and recognize their meanings. Our holidays should have meaning for us today. Here in South Florida, our festivals might include the following: Citrus Harvest Time -- sometime in December. A time to enjoy fresh citrus and to send orange-filled baskets to relatives up north to remind them of what it means to live in paradise. First Mangos -- sometime in August (depending on the variety of mango). Everyone gets together and goes through the ritual of slicing open a mango and eating it right out of the skin. We'd make mango ice cream, of course. Hurricane Deliverance Day -- About the same as Samhain, November 1. A party to honor the passing of hurricane season. Snowbirds' Return -- December 15. Thousands of South Floridians gather at the Turnpike exits and cheer the annual return of snowbirds, and their much-needed cash. Magic 84 Day -- Sometime in March or April. The first day swimming pools in South Florida reach 84 degrees Fahrenheit, and Florida residents can go swimming again. HarvestHome -- South Florida's harvest festival, around March 15, when the truck crops of the Redlands (down around Homestead) are mainly harvested. Monsoon Madness -- Sometime in June, on the first major deluge of the season. Everyone could go out in the streets wading and posing for newspaper photographers. We could have lots of festivals down here in Florida: Last Orange of the Season Day, Snowbird Deliverance Day (the Monday after Easter, when the bulk of winter visitors have left), Avocado Harvest, First Hurricane of the Year (a day of regional mourning), Tourist Appreciation Day, Regional Pothole Festival (in mid- summer's, when most the roads are being torn up) -- the list could go on and on. Some of these are tongue-in-cheek, of course, but at least they would be indigenous to our region. At least they would not be copied from other cultures and other times and followed slavishly as a matter of rote. Of course, it's sometimes nice to celebrate an ancient festival just to get the feel for what it might have been like for those people. I enjoy, once in a while, experiencing the Maypole at Beltane, just like I enjoy, rarely, a midnight mass or a native American Sun Dance. But to force myself to participate in a stultifying ritual -- whether it be pagan or Christian or even Wau-ian -- is counter to my personal feeling of freedom. I'd rather create my own rituals. I'd rather they were meaningful to me -- and to the people around me, and to the place and time in which I live. Blessed be!