Oooo, Beith! What might that entail? I don't want to hijack Fiacharrey's thread here, so maybe you might start a new thread about it, le do thoil? I'd love to hear more!
Go raibh maith agat,
~ Abhaill
Hi Abhaill!
Here's a little more info on the idea for a Bealtaine Feis discussed briefly in the Irish trad music thread, as requested:
As you know Bealtaine is one of the two prime festivals of the Celtic year - one of the major boundary festivals at the juncture of the summer and winter halves of the year, a liminal time with many customs and traditions behind it. Long ago in Ireland a Bealtaine Feis ~ a celebration, assembly of people, law-making, feasting, musical & poetic entertainments, buying and selling and ritual celebrations were observed over a series of days around the festival time.
I had an idea to celebrate Bealtaine publicly on this board...to have a "festival" of sorts where over the first few days of May, we would have Bealtaine-related threads on the board - either in a forum like Discuss Druidry or even the Pub or perhaps in here in Celtic Studies. Anywhere suitable. The idea was to publicly celebrate a major Celtic festival and let people participate in that online if they wish to - I am sure many people will be doing their own private personal rituals independently or with their groves; but as the druidic/celtic interest community is spread all over the world, not everyone has a grove or seed group to practice with; hence an online festival of Bealtaine would allow some community celebration for anyone interested to participate.
I was thinking that various threads could be set up on things inkeeping with the festival eg. threads for:
Bealtaine Art*
Bealtaine Poetry*
Bealtaine Music* - anyone who wishes to submit a song, an instrumental they composed or a recommendation of a piece of music or songs that evoke the feelings of Bealtaine
Bealtaine Feast - posting recipes for seasonal food, drinks or for incense, oils, etc.
Bealtaine Folklore - some traditions of Bealtaine, folk custom.Bealtaine Marketplace - anyone with a small businesses selling goods could advertise them for this week in a Bealtaine Market eg. post a message & photographs & prices of their products for sale and a link to their own website or to an existing advert in "The Druid's Marketplace" forum, if they have an advert there.
Bealtaine Nature - photographs of nature at this season
Bealtaine Ritual - perhaps an online Bealtaine ritual (or several) could be posted if people wish to share a spiritual gathering and people could add their prayers/wishes/agreements/healing petitions there or even just "awen" or a 'candle' in response.
(or any other topics..these are just ideas I had)
* We already have a seasonal Eisteddfod so this would not be in competition with that - we could simply link to the Bealtaine Eisteddfod, but it's true to say that not everyone wants to enter their art/poetry/creations in an Eisteddfod competition for judgement, so I was thinking that maybe having a Bealtaine thread for music/art/poetry etc would allow those who don't want to enter their work to be judged in a competition, to post Bealtaine-themed/related work in a purely festival-oriented thread.
I raised this idea with some folks previously but there wasn't much interest so I'm not sure whether it would be worthwhile to do it ~ whether people would be interested or not. It's just an idea. We will all celebrate or acknowledge the festival ourselves in our own ways anyway, but I thought this might be a nice opportunity to bring people together from the druidic community, in a way that isn't possible 'in person' for communal festival celebration.
So, I hope that clarifies! Again, it's just a thought...
best wishes,
Beith
