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Should Christians celebrate May Day?

(The Christian Life)

After many Europeans get through celebrating the official beginning of spring with Easter Sunday there is another mid-spring festival the next month to also not only celebrate spring but also the coming summer season: this special holiday is called May Day.

May day is celebrated on the very first day of May to celebrate the present spring season and the soon coming summer season of plenty and harvest. It’s a day often of music, singing, dancing, flowers, bright colors, and outside fun and joy for many in the western nations: and especially in many European nations where May Day is very popular.

As many people in European and other western nations prepare to celebrate this bright and fun day at the beginning of May, there is something every Christian (and especially Christians in Europe who plan on celebrating May Day) should ask themselves about May Day:

“Should I really be celebrating May Day?”

So, should you be celebrating May Day?

At first this might seem like a strange question for a Christian to ask; why question celebrating or not celebrating a simple holiday? It’s just for fun, it's no big deal. Many Christians might wonder at first.

But if we as Christians are really trying to live a life that will please King Jesus/God, then we ought to seriously consider everything we do in our lives:

God through his servant Paul tells us to do this: we are to seriously question and test everything we encounter in our lives and only accept what God would approve of (what is good):

1 Thessalonians 5:21

“Test all things; hold fast [to] what is good”

That would especially include seriously considering what holidays we choose to celebrate (and really what we ultimately approve of/endorse: that’s very important to consider!)

This is what we as all Christians need to question:

Are we supporting what Jesus/God would support by celebrating this holiday? Are we really living like Jesus would by celebrating it? And most importantly, are Jesus and God okay with us celebrating this holiday?

All these questions are exactly the reason why you should seriously question celebrating May Day.

So, the very first thing we should ask is:

what exactly does May Day celebrate?

A holiday is a special day (or group of days) set aside on our calendar to honor or celebrate something [1].

If this is true then what is May Day set aside to honor? What is this day paying respect to? Besides fun outside and the nature of the season, what do you really honor in May Day festivities and fun?

In order to truly find that out, we need to know how May Day got started; so where did this fun and colorful holiday come from?

The origins of May Day

May Day actually came from many different pagan nations' traditions of different ancient spring/summer festivals: many ancient European nations held festivals somewhere in the spring/summer to celebrate the coming longer days and hotter temperatures of spring and summer that would ensure a successful summer crop/livestock.

Often, these festivals would also serve to honor certain gods of the nation that had to do with growth and the season or even to appease spirits. As the Roman empire mixed their Roman festivals with the local nations they conquered festivals as well as later when these European nations began to accept Christianity in the Medieval ages these ancient festivals transformed into the different versions of May Day found in many different European nations today. While the origin of May Day may vary from European nation to European nation, Specifically the holiday of May Day as it is celebrated In the British Isles/and by extension Latin nations like France,Italy,Spain Ect [2].

Celtic holiday of Beltain/Calan Mai

Came from two specific pagan nation’s spring/summer holidays combined. This was the day when summer officially began (in the northern hemisphere on May 1st) and when Celtic farmers took their herds out to summer pastures all summer to graze, this was also a time the veil between the spirit world and physical world was considered thin (just like in Samhain/Halloween) but instead of ghosts and dead relatives crossing over into the physical world faeries/nature spirits cross over into the physical world because of the new life in the land because of spring. Since these faeries might play pranks on the farmers, cattle, and even ordinary people the Celts would have ‘purifying’ rituals to give them good luck and protection from the tricks of the nature spirits/during the summer.

These rituals included beginning a massive bonfire somewhere in the country where the fire from this massive bonfire would light others bonfires through the whole country. Then the herds/other things would be decorated with flowers; and the herds would be forced to go through the coals of the fire for good luck and cakes would be cooked on the coals and alters would be made with offerings at traditional fairy sights to appease the fairy spirits crossing over [3].

The Roman holiday of Floralia

The Floralia festival was a Roman 6-day festival dedicated to celebrating the Roman goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility called ‘Flora’ (which was celebrated when spring season of rebirth was in full bloom). The festival began on April 28th with a play and continued with entertainment and competitive games in honor of the goddess and ended with a sacrifice to flora.

On these days Romans would decorate with flowers and dress in bright clothes to honor the goddess as well as dance and sing (sometimes naked) and goats and hares (male bunnies) were released, and flowers and beans thrown to symbolize fertility [3].

When Rome became an empire and took over the Celtic nations of northern Europe, they combined their Floralia celebration with the local Celtic Beltane holiday making what would become the May Day festival in the British Isles as well as in other Latin nations in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy [2].

So knowing the origin of May Day, we can clearly see May Day was originally a pagan spring/summer holiday to not only just honor the present spring season and coming summer of plenty season but to also celebrate/appease pagan fertility/nature gods/spirits who were at the core of what would become the May Day celebrations that even included rituals, sacrifices, and special offerings to these gods/spirits.

Now that you understand where May Day came from and what it originally was celebrating, now it’s time to seriously ask: Knowing what you have seen above, would Jesus (or God) be okay with you celebrating a holiday that is dedicated to honoring not only the spring/summer seasons but also pagan fertility gods/ pagan nature spirits?

While God might not mind honoring the seasons of spring and summer he created (as he says his created season on Earth with always continue and never cease; strongly hinting he created them and approves of them):

Genesis 8:22

“...As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter (seasons on Earth)…will never cease.’”

God is also clearly against worshiping/honoring any other gods (or even spirits!) besides him:

Exodus 20:3

“Do not worship any god except for me.”

And warns his people to not get involved in sexual immorality (like the ancient pagan holidays of Beltane and Floralia often promoted):

I Corinthians 6:18

“Flee (Run away/avoid) from sexual immorality…”

We can conclude that Jesus and God would be against the holiday of May Day since it also was made to honor spirits and gods besides them as well as promote and honor sexual lust!

Therefore, we can conclude that its most likely not appropriate for a Christian to celebrate May Day, and therefore we should not be celebrating May Day.

However, before we jump to a final conclusion, some Christians might object to this, saying:

“why that was bad what those ancient pagan people did and honored, modern people who celebrate May Day don’t do any of that: modern May Day is not about worshiping pagan gods or honoring them with sacrifices/rituals or even thinking nature spirits come back to trick our herds/farmers anymore; it's now just about celebrating the beautiful spring season and even coming summer season while having traditional outdoor fun, now what’s wrong with that?”

Why it's true May Day originally began as a pagan holiday dedicated to honoring pagan fertility gods and spirits, it's also equally true to note that May Day has also changed in what it celebrates and honors:

Today no one really worships and honors the fertility god or really focuses on appeasing the nature spirits/faeries, or really focuses on rituals to ensure protection/good luck for herds/farmers. Instead, it's now just mainly about celebrating the joy and nature of spring and the coming of summer season while having a wonderful colorful festival full of joy and fun.

While for many who celebrate May Day, this is the case, at the same time it's still not completely true that no one celebrates May Day like the ancient pagan Celts and Romans originally did.

There are modern occultists (modern [Celtic] pagans) and Wiccans who try to celebrate May Day almost exactly like the Ancient Celtic pagans did for almost the exact same reason:

They celebrate May Day (and many still refer to May Day by its original ancient Celtic name: Beltane) not just as a day to honor the nature of spring/coming summer nor even to just have some outdoor fun: they celebrate it to honor fertility gods and nature spirits/’energies of summer (idolatry). They pretty much try to intimidate how and why the ancient Celts celebrated the day:

They dance around the Maypole to symbolize/ pay tribute to fertility (both the gods/spirits of fertility and actual sexual fertility), they make a huge bonfire to symbolize fertility/summer, they decorate with flowers, many get involved with sex or nudity in some way, and some even sacrifice to these gods/spirits and even leave offerings out for them [4]!

Also, this is not just small, isolated groups of people:

the nations of Scotland and England even openly and publicly hold Beltane fire festivals on May Day celebrating the same pagan holiday the ancient Celts did [3]!

Considering all this, even though you yourself would not celebrate May Day like a pagan would; do you as a Christian still feel comfortable celebrating May Day knowing you are celebrating pretty much the same holiday these people do pretty much doing the same traditional activities they do, even if it seems so pleasant, fun, and innocent?

Hopefully you would say no like any reasonable Christian would And Jesus and God would absolutely agree with you:

Because the Bible reveals it’s God’s will that his people do not participate in activities that involve honoring evil spirits (called Demons here) that especially pagans/wiccans participate in:

1 Corinthians 10:20-21

“...the sacrifices (honor) of pagans are offered to demons,…and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord (follow Jesus/God) and the cup of demons too (and also get involved with activities honoring evil spirits/or values they promote like sexual perversion) …”

So once again, if your celebrating May Day know you are celebrating a day along with wiccans, and pagans, and are thus indirectly participating in honoring evil demonic spirits (not even considering the fact your also supporting a holiday on which these people practice idolatry and sexual immorality) So obviously, even if May Day has mainly changed from what it celebrates, the fact alone that evil people against God’s church honor evil spirits that are also against his church should be a good enough sign that Christians definitely should not be celebrating May Day at all!

However even after knowing all this, still some Christians might argue

“Why that’s terrible what some people do on May Day and definitively should not be supported, I don’t see nothing wrong with having nothing to do with all that evil and just celebrating the beauty and fun of the spring and summer seasons: would God still be against me celebrating May Day even if I wanted nothing to do with those evil people or honoring fertility and evil spirits, but just wanted to celebrate by dancing, dressing up in bright costumes, and having a good time? ”

Why this might sound reasonable to get rid of every pagan and evil thing May Day might be connected to and just try to celebrate the ‘acceptable’ parts of May Day, this reasoning is very flawed and ultimately will not work:

wherever you like it or not you are still participating in a holiday along with evil people that began as and is still for some about honoring fertility and nature spirits/gods, trying to change what May Day is ultimately meant to celebrate (that is the superstition of nature spirits/honoring fertility Gods not just the nature of spring/summer itself: that is only half of the holiday) even the traditions you might want to keep that don’t seem to have nothing to do with honoring spirits/fertility actually symbolically still do:

Maypole dancing most likely comes from pagan fertility rights practiced on the holiday in which the pole and baskets/bows are used to most likely symbolize male and female reproductive organs [2].

Making flower crowns and giving flowers on this day were meant to originally ward off faeries from stealing/playing pranks [2].

Therefore, It can’t just be isolated as just a day to celebrate spring/summer and nothing more, even if a Christian really wants to believe this with all their heart; it won’t work! The holiday comes from paganism and is still tied to pagans even to this day therefore it is still a pagan holiday honoring fertility and superstition wherever you like it or not!

Now this is not to say that Christians should not nor cannot celebrate the season of Spring/summer nor any seasons:

God made seasons on Earth like all things: there is nothing necessarily wrong with celebrating the beauty and renewal of the Northern hemisphere around April-May (and also in the appropriate time in the Southern Hemisphere) that comes with the spring season. Nor is their nothing necessarily wrong with celebrating spring/summer with decorating with blooming flowers nor even dancing or songs: God also made beautiful flowers since he made all life on Earth and flowers (as well as joyful dancing and singing) are the perfect symbol for spring:

So, there is nothing wrong with all this:

However, there is something wrong with recycling a pagan fertility holiday used to worship false gods and nature spirits and then using it to celebrate the Spring/summer season. (And really this is exactly what May day is)

In conclusion, May Day has really nothing at all to do with honoring God and what he stands for, it might first appear on the surface that May Day is dedicated to honoring God’s season of spring ‘rebirth/new life’ in a joyful and colorful way similar to how Easter seems to, but, with some investigation into the core nature of why the holiday exists; under the surface of this colorful holiday are some very ungodly symbols and origins that still make up the core of this holiday wherever they are openly recognized as symbols by pagans/wiccans or are ‘hidden’ but are used anyway by regular Europeans, they are against how God would most likely want us to celebrate his seasons.

For all the reasons covered above Christians most likely should not be celebrating May Day :

Its an old hangover from modern European’s pagan ancestors who did not want to give up their special holidays. But we as Christians should be willing to give it up to try to please our father God and our king Jesus who most likely would not be pleased with us celebrating a recycled pagan fertility holiday.

(Back to The Christian Life)

Sources:

[1]

[A] Wikipedia "Holiday"

Website:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday

[B] Merriam-Webster "Holiday"

Website:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/holiday

[2]

[A] Wikipedia “May Day”

Website: