By Kate Hodges
26th April 2023
EVENT, DO, MAKE BELTING BELTANE
Saturday is Beltane, or May Day. Hastings’ Jack in the Green Clun’s Green Man, Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire and Rochester’s Sweeps festivals are wild ways to usher in the summer sun (find more events here), but this is an occasion perfect for celebrating at home too.
Step into your garden, or visit a green space near you and watch the sun rise. Legend has it that if you wash your faces in the morning dew, you’ll all have flawless complexions for the whole year (find out more here). Traditionally, fires were lit at this time of year; if your garden is big and distant enough from neighbours to have your own, that would be fun, or you could scale things down and use candles.
Over at our site, Danu Forest’s ideas for celebrating the festival include seeking out liminal places in the woods, feeling the wheel of the seasons turning towards summer and making morris bells to attract helpful fairies or find more of our suggestions for a wild Beltane here and how to make a Beltane headband here. Alternatively create your own healing Beltane magic with hawthorn or ground ivy.
Fancy a darker celebration? Walpurgis Night is celebrated across northern Europe on the night of April 30 (Sunday) and the day of May 1. In Germanic folklore, this was Hexennacht (Witches’ Night), the time when the magical women gathered on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz mountains. Consequently, fires are lit to ward off evil spirits.
Traditions vary across Europe; in Bavaria, teenagers play pranks, in Thueringen, girls dress up as witches, while in parts of Finland, people run screaming through the streets drinking and wearing masks. They also eat Walpurgis Doughnut Holes; find an easy recipe here. Many places make straw scarecrows to toss on the bonfires, thought to be soaked in the bad luck and grumpiness from the year gone.
You’ll discover more about the festival here, including a colourful and fascinating video. Why not hold your own celebration with bonfires, a straw figure and general witchiness? The decision to gather in your own coven or to attempt to ward off the broomstick bashers is entirely yours!
EVENT TWITTER STORM
Enjoy nature’s biggest natural music festival this Sunday! The RSPB’s Dawn Chorus festival celebrates the bounteous birdsong that rings around our isles at this time of year. Taking part is as simple as opening a window, stepping into your garden or a park and making time to listen; find a guide to making the most of the performances here. You might even like to download a birdsong app to help you identify the morning’s performers; there’s a good guide to the best here. In addition, there are events taking place across the country. If you want to keep the twitter party going, buy the wonderful Curlew Sounds Project album, which features The Unthanks and Talvin Singh, or download the RSPB’s birdsong radio app and tune in whenever you need a nourishing chirp soundbath.
EVENT SAFARI SO GOODY
Running across the world for four days from Friday, the City Nature Challenge is an international race to discover and record as much wildlife as possible – a wild mini safari across your neighbourhood. Founded in the USA, the event is global, with events and bioblitzes in major cities in the UK – find your nearest participating city here. Take part in organised hunts, or download an app to join in independently. There’s a multi-aged education toolkit, here.
MAKE AND DO SNAP HAPPY
This Sunday is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, where people worldwide are encouraged to take some time off from the increasingly technological world we live in and to participate in the simple act of making a pinhole photograph. You can head to an event near you, (we like the idea of the Barbican centre pinhole walk) or simply build your own snapping device.
Pinhole photography allows you to take a photograph using a light-tight container with a tiny hole in one side and a photo-sensitive surface within it. You can adapt an existing camera, or make the box yourself – there are some excellent links to help you here. Every picture uploaded to the event’s website will become part of a huge online gallery.
DO CROWNING GLORIES AND NO MOW MAY
It’s National Gardening Week – a time to share your love of growing plants. This year, the RHS is urging you to create a container to celebrate the upcoming coronation, and say, “Let your imaginations run wild by creating colourful planting schemes or displays in whatever space you have available, whether that is a window box, a hanging basket, or even an old pair of wellies.” Find out more here.
While you’re in the garden, you may wish to join No Mow May. No Mow May is Plantlife’s annual campaign calling all garden owners and green space managers not to mow during May – liberating your lawns and providing a space for nature. We’ve lost nearly 97% of flower rich meadows since the 1970’s and with them gone are vital food needed by pollinators, like bees and butterflies.A healthy lawn with some long grass and wildflowers benefits wildlife, tackles pollution and can even lock away carbon below ground – and best of all, to reap these benefits all you have to do is not mow your lawn in May!
REMINDER: Want to go wild with your family? Sign up now to spend June immersing yourselves in nature with the Wildlife Trust’s month of challenges. 30 Days Wild is now in its seventh year, with thousands upon thousands of people signing up to take on daily ‘random acts of wildness’ that might include ‘eating a wild lunch’, ‘tuning in by switching off’ and ‘tickling toes in the grass’. Get a free 30 Days Wild pack here and be inspired!
WHAT WE’RE EATING SUPER-HEALTHY TOMATO KETCHUP Traditional ketchup was once a fermented condiment. In the last century the fermentation process was skipped in favour of adding cheap vinegar, sugar and even more salt. However, a lot of the rich flavours of real ketchup are lost in the simplified store bought versions. The fermentation process (which takes approximately 4-5 days) allows beneficial, natural probiotic bacteria to form making this ketchup actively good for you. Find the recipe here
WHAT WE’RE READING Pelvic thrusts and paintings of breast pumps: the mothers making game-changing art: “That one can be both an artist and a mother should not be controversial. Gravina, who founded Procreate Project, references Tracey Emin’s famous avowal that she would have been “no good” as an artist had she had children. ‘It makes me sad,’ says Gravina. ‘We want to change preconceptions of artist mothers, not only in terms of the themes of their work, but also what that work should look like, which is why we have several large-scale installations in the show that contribute to the aim of unpacking and shifting the stereotypes associated to what type of art is made by mothers/parents, inside or outside the domestic contexts.’” Read more here
