Eve of Beltane

 

Walpurgis Night is celebrated every year on the night of April 30th into May 1st. Historically, it marks the transition from spring to summer and is associated with bonfires, dancing, and old seasonal traditions.

The name comes from Saint Walpurga, an English nun from the 8th century who traveled to Germany as a Christian missionary. She was known for caring for the sick, promoting education, and founding religious communities. Her feast day became associated with May 1st after her relics were moved in 870 AD.

The connection to witches comes mainly from German folklore. During the Middle Ages, people believed that witches gathered on mountaintops—especially at Brocken in Germany—for rituals, dancing, and spiritual gatherings. Villagers lit large fires to protect themselves from evil spirits and to welcome the warmer season.

Walpurgis Night also has pagan roots because it overlaps with ancient spring fertility festivals such as Beltane. Over time, older folk traditions blended with the Christian celebration of Saint Walpurga.

Today, Walpurgis Night is still celebrated in parts of Northern and Central Europe with bonfires, music, costumes, and spring festivals.

The is the night of fertility celebration, welcoming spring and all the wonders of animal and plant life that regenerate at this time of the annual cycle of life on our planet. I wrote about Beltane and bonfires a bit in the past on Alchemy of Clay.

A May Day tradition was for children to pick flowers and then distribute them throughout the town. Of course the gardeners were not always happy to have kids trampling through their roses!

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Wild roses or dog-roses

Wisteria brought home!

Unknown source, with Stonehenge included

Wear some artificial flowers in a crown, it does make one feel like a girl for May Day!

Of course many traditions start with bonfires on May Day Eve. I haven't ever taken part in those, but have read about them! With droughts so prevalent in the US, I hope there are very few bonfires this year. 

Tomorrow is called May Day. Historically this was a day workers would have marches until the Communists made big parades with military equipment which stopped the holiday celebrations in the US.

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Health care update.

No news from the insurance debacle, except late Tuesday I got a call from that Dr.’s office from a new person (Bonnie) who said they would make sure I could keep my appointment with my PCP (primary care provider) and have the certification meeting the insurance requirement by next week.

I’m not holding my breath! But they did send me a confirmation this morning that I have the appointment.

As of 1:30 pm Wednesday…

Nobody had called me back and I looked at my trembling hands and realized I could not put a needle into an IV line to save me as the nurse practitioner had told me I needed to do.

So I called the infectious disease (ID) office and left a message for the nurse to that effect,and mentioned that the nurse practitioner (Amy) hadn’t called me back yesterday afternoon.

So another nurse called within an hour to explain that the lab results that Amy had looked at were from  the hospital before I was discharged and then took antibiotics orally for 2 weeks. So I didn’t need any more antibiotics.

At the same time the lab results from my bloodwork at ID were on my patient portal, with normal range of white blood cells! You all probably know when they’re elevated, it means you have an infection.

I sighed with such relief. And I said how worried I’d been that I needed all this treatment still.

I remembered telling Amy the sputum test which showed the fungus had been taken the 7th and not reported till the 20th, but she didn’t hear that as meaning I was still in the hospital. Glad she conferred with the Dr. before any more mistakes were made.

The best part was then being able to look at the results of ID’s bloodwork and talk with this nurse about other things that weren’t normal! So since I don’t drink alcohol, we figured my high liver enzymes are due to taking Tylenol for pain. Fortunately now I can switch to ibuprofen. Nothing that needs treatment showed as of first tests, but there may be more results and this nurse said she’d call me and let me know when they come in. I’ll also be checking  the patient portal!

And I’m feeling better day by day. Didn’t make it to exercise, but I joined friends for lunch at least!