The May Queen
We know that our forefathers very generally kept the beginning of May as a great festival, and it is still regarded as the trysting time of witches, i.e. once of wise-women and fays.
The May Queen is also known as The Maiden, goddess of spring, flower bride, queen of the faeries, lady of the flowers. The May Queen is the stillness around which everything revolves. She embodys purity, strength and the potential for growth. She is the personification of the energy of the earth.
She was once Maid Marian in the medieval Robin Hood plays and May Games – she is the young village girl, crowned with blossom, attended by children with garlands and white dresses. Folklorists have identified her with Flora, the Roman goddess of fruits and flowers whose festival, the Floralia, was on April 28th or Maia, Roman ‘Goddess of Springtime, of Growth and Increase’ whose very name may be the root of ‘May’.
At Samhuinn and Imbolc, the May Queen is replaced with a wintery figure – the crone, or Cailleach – a blue-faced hag who brings winter storms and bad weather to the lands. She is associated with the protection of wells and watery places, and is found in different guises through Northern Europe.