Celebrating Beltane the Oz Way! Part 2

I've been reading over the last part of this post and it made me reconsider my comments on how a country traditionally celebrates the changing seasons and how we should use "local" customs.

It didn't occur to me before now that some of the traditions that I saw as being British actually didn't originate there. An example of this is the maypole dance, it was an ancient Germanic tradition. It probably came to the UK with the Saxons.

So we can see that as groups of people move and migrate they take certain cultural traditions with them.

This picture shows boys and girls dancing the maypole in Adelaide in 1906 so it is safe to assume that this tradition certainly came over to Australia with the early migrants. This is probably much the case with other traditions such as Morris dancing.

However I'm not sure how many of these traditions are carried on today and I'm sure that if they are carried on that they are used in mayday or Easter celebrations which for us pagans fall at the wrong time of year!

In my next post on this subject I will be researching how the aboriginal people celebrate the turning of the wheel of the year.

However if any readers can help me with more information on this subject please comment or message me! I would especially like to know if the maypole and Morris dancing is still around today in Australia.

I look forward to hearing from you dear readers ... x