Parish of Llandudno, North Wales, Rector's letter

May 2009

I’m sure that we are all particularly glad to see the coming of spring and summer after the long cold winter we’ve just had. And with all the gloom and doom of the credit crunch and the recession we all need cheering up!

May Day was long regarded as the herald of summer and has been kept in one way or another since ancient pagan times. Then, it was associated with fertility rites beginning with the festival of Flora the Roman goddess of flowers and in Celtic lands Beltane the festival of fire. With the coming of Christianity many of these customs were suppressed or Christianised but others survived such as dancing around the maypole or crowning a May Queen.

Some parts of the country still have their own special ceremonies to this day, for example the Padstow ‘Obby Oss’; the Rochester Sweeps’ Festival and ‘May Morning’ at Magdalen College, Oxford when revellers gather to listen to the college choir. These ceremonies may all have developed from ancient fertility rites but over the centuries they have become opportunities to welcome summer and have some fun. Sometimes the celebrations got out of hand, leading to extreme drunkenness etc. Nevertheless it is sad that Puritans and others tried to abolish them so making it seem that Christianity is really about stopping people enjoying themselves. In many cases the Church wisely adapted, or tolerated ancient pagan customs so helping people to accept the faith without having to abandon everything which had given shape to their lives. In Medieval times the Church developed the custom of keeping May in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a chance to reflect on her wondrous fertility in giving birth to Jesus the Saviour of the world. Ceremonies of crowning statues of Mary with a wreath of blossoms are still popular in the Roman Catholic Church and in some Anglican parishes today.

In May we are of course still celebrating Eastertide which speaks to us of the resurrection of Our Lord and the new life he offers. The 50 days of Easter end with the great feast of Pentecost which shows how we can experience that new life for ourselves by sharing in the gift of the Spirit which Christ has bestowed upon his church. We are called to use the gifts that the Spirit gives us to develop fertile spiritual lives.

It seems to me that May gives us the opportunity to reflect on God gifts to us both in nature and in the Christian life. We can rejoice in the new life of the resurrection and the gifts of the Spirit, wonder at God’s gift to us of Jesus through the fertility of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also rejoice in the coming of summer, giving thanks for the fertility of nature, and maybe also rejoicing in human love and sexuality, also part of God’s wonderful gift in creation.

There are no particular May customs associated with the Llandudno area as far as I am aware – except for the Extravaganza which is of modern origin and has nothing to do with ancient May customs. Having said that it is an opportunity for many folk to dress up and enjoy themselves and so could be seen as a new way of fulfilling that ancient desire for a ceremony to welcome the summer and have some fun: in this casewith the aid of traction engines, a fun fair and Victorian costumes rather than by dancing round a maypole or crowning a May Queen!

Enjoy the month of May, giving thanks to God for all his gifts!

Fr John

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