May 31

On this day, the annual Triple Blessing of the God Buddha is observed by Theravada Buddhists. To celebrate the god's birth, enlightenment, and passage into nirvana, shrines and houses are decorated with flowers and special prayer flags. Offerings of flowers, incense, and rice are also made. The Triple Blessing often lasts for three consecutive days.

May 30

On this date in the year 1431, French heroine and military leader Joan of Arc was burned alive at the stake as punishment for committing the crimes of Witchcraft, herasy, and "being given to the forbidden arts of magick and divination."

May 29

On this day in ancient times, the god Mars was honored by the farmers of Rome with feasts, prayers, animal sacrifices, and annual rites of purification.

The Ambarvalia festival was also celebrated on this day in honor of Ceres, Juno, the Lares, and the Family Goddesses.

May 28

A sacred rite called the Pythian Games was enacted every four years on this date in ancient Greece. The rite honored the slain serpent-goddess Python, and was celebrated in Delphi, the most venerated shrine in all of Greece.

May 27

On this day, the Secular Centennial Games were observed in ancient Rome. The goddesses Diana, Prosperina, and the Three Fates were honored in nighttime healing ceremonies.

On this date in the year 1948, Morning Glory Zell was born in Long Beach, California. She is a priestess and vice-president of the Church of All Worlds, and is a practitioner of Celtic Pagan Shamanism.

May 26

Sacred Well Day. On this day, it is traditional for Pagans and Witches (especially in Ireland and Great Britain) to decorate sacred wells with wreaths and to toss offerings of flowers into the water in honor of the deities and spirits of the well. This custom dates back to the ancient Romans, who celebrated an annual well festival called the Fortinalia, which took place on this day.

May 25

In Europe (especially France), this day is sacred to Saint Sarah of the Gypsies and also to an ancient Triple Goddess who rose from the waters of the ocean.

In ancient Greece, the birthday of Apollo, the twin brother of the goddess Artemis, was celebrated annually on this date.

On this date in the year 1581, famed occultists and alchemist John Dee first realized his natural gift for looking into the future through the art of crystal-gazing. He served for years as the royal astrologer of Queen Elizabeth and had a reputation as a powerful wizard.

May 24

On this day, an annual harvest ritual called Sacred Furrow Day was held in Cambodia. As part of the rite, the farmland would be plowed by members of the royal family in order to appease the ancient gods of the harvest and to ensure the fertility of the land.

The birth of the Greek moon-goddess Artemis (who also presides over hunting and wild beasts) has been celebrated each year on this day since ancient times. As a lunar goddess, she has been an influential archetype for many Witches and worshipers of the contemporary Goddess religion. Artemis is equivalent to the Roman moon-goddess Diana and is identified with Luna, Hecate, and Selene.

May 23

The Rosalia, a sacred rose festival dedicated to the springtime flower-goddess Flora and the love-goddess Venus, was celebrated annually on this date in ancient Rome.

May 22

On this date (approximately), the Sun enters the astrological sign of Gemini. Persons born under the sign of the Twins are said to be communicative, curious, charming, and often nervous and fickle. Gemini is an air sign and is ruled by the planet Mercury.

May 21

On this date in the year 1911, Peter Hurkos was born in the Netherlands. He developed astonishing psychic powers after recovering from a coma, and became world-famous for solving crimes through the divinatory art of psychometry. He passed away in Los Angeles on May 25, 1988.

On this date in the year 1946, Gwydion Pendderwen was born in Berkeley, California. He was a Celtic bard, a cofounder of the Faery Tradition of Witchcraft, and the founder of a Neo-Pagan networking organization called Nemeton. He died in the Autumn of 1982 as aresult of a tragic automobile accident.

May 20

On this date, a sacred festival called the Plynteria was celebrated annually in ancient Greece. The festival was held in honor of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle, and the patroness of the city of Athens (which was named after her), and included the ritual sea cleansing of her statue, followed by prayers in the Parthenon and feasting.

May 19

On this day in the year 1780, a strange and unexplained darkness draped most of New England, turning daytime into night. Many folks believed that a Salem Witch's curse was responsible for the day of darkness, since no other explanation for the phenomenon has ever been found.

May 18

Colour: Topaz
Moon Sign: Virgo
Incense: Cedar

Las Piedras Day -- Uruguayan

Manger pour Gran'n Aloumandia (Haiti)

Battle of Las Peidras (Uruguay)

Flag & University Day (Haiti)

International Museum Day(International)

National Play Day for Health (USA)

Revival & Unity Day (Turkmenistan)

Manger pour Gran'n Aloumandia (Voudon)

The Feast of Twins. On this day festivals honouring twins are held annually in the African republic of Nigeria. It is widely believed among the Yoruba people that all twins are born with abundant magickal and supernatural powers.

Kallynteria, ancient Greece Purification ceremonies of the goddess Pallas Athena. A thorough cleaning of Athena's temple by women under the direction of Athena's priestess. In Greece this day was also celebrated as the Feast of Pan, the Greek god of flocks and shepherds, and the god Apollo.

1872 Lord Bertrand Russell (d. 1970), British mathematician, philosopher, Fellow of the Royal Society and peace and social activist, who was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.

1926 USA: The famous eccentric American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 - 1944), disappeared while visiting a Venice, California beach.

Authorities later discovered that radio announcer Kenneth Ormiston, a friend of McPherson, had also vanished, and evidence was strong that the two had set up a 'love nest'.

After 32 days (on June 23), McPherson stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, Mexico, just across the border from Douglas, Arizona with a tale of having been kidnapped by persons unknown.

May 17

In the Philippines, a Neo-Pagan fertility ritual is celebrated every year on this date by married couples who wish to have children. The rites (dedicated to Santa Clara) continue until the nineteenth of May.

May 16

Colour: White
Moon Sign: Leo
Incense: Myrrh

St. Honoratus' Day

Discovery Day (Cayman Islands)

On this date in the year 1918, famous Italian spiritualist-mediumEusapia Palladino passed away. She was be remembered for her ability toenter a state of trance and levitate during seances.

Feast day of St Brendan the Elder (aka, the Navigator, or Voyager)
Some say that Brendan sailed from Ireland and found America in the 6th century. In the 1970s, Tim Severin showed that it was possible to sail a coracle (a small boat made of wood and leather) to America, so it is possible, if unlikely, that Irish monks might have preceded Christopher Columbus by several centuries.

Founder and first abbot of monastery at Clonfert, Galway, Brendan went looking for the island that had once contained Adam and Eve's paradise, encountering the monstrous fish named Jascon (Jasconius) along the way

1763 One of Western history's most celebrated friendships commenced.
James Boswell first met Dr Samuel Johnson, whose famous biography, Life of Dr Johnson, he later wrote and published on this day in 1791. They met in the back parlour of Tom Davies's London bookshop

1997 President Bill Clinton apologised on behalf of the United States of America, for the Tuskegee syphilis study, carried out by Tuskegee Institute, the African-American university founded by Booker T Washington. In the notorious human experiment, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932 -1972), 400 poor, mostly illiterate black share croppers from Tuskegee, Alabama became part of a study on the treatment of syphilis without their full knowledge, and were allowed to suffer and even die from the disease when treatment could have been given them

May 15

Colour: Gold
Moon Sign: Leo
Incense: Coriander

Festival of St. Dympna -- Belgian

Ascension Thursday(Luxembourg)

Independence Day (Paraguay)

International Day of Families (International)

Mother's Day (Western Samoa)

Peace Officer Memorial Day(USA)

On this date in ancient times, the Romans preformed an annual purification rite consisting of the "sacrifice" of 27 straw puppets to the river god of Tiber.

Mercuralia in honour of Mercury,
Roman Empire Mercuralia is a Roman celebration known also as the 'Festival of Mercury'. Mercury was thought to be the god of merchants and commerce.

On May 15 merchants would sprinkle their heads, their ships and merchandise, and their businesses with water taken from the well at Porta Capena. Mercury is a Roman god, also known as the Roman god of trade, profit and commerce

1936 Wavy Gravy born: Paul Krassner called him "The illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa".

Wavy Gravy, or Hugh Romney as he was born (he got his nickname from BB King), is a clown, philanthropist and cult hero of the Californian counter culture circa 1960s. He is the founder of the famed hippie commune the Hog Farm but he is probably best known worldwide as the Master of Ceremonies at Woodstock (1969) andthe second Woodstock in 1994.

Wavy is a life-long activist for peace and personal empowerment, and the official clown of the Grateful Dead. Born in New York, in 1962 he moved to California at the request of Lenny Bruce, who became his part-time manager

May 14

The Festival of the Midnight Sun is celebrated annually on this date by Pagans in far northern Norway. The festival, which pays homage to the ancient Norse goddess of the sun, begins at sunrise and marks the beginning of ten consecutive weeks without the darkness of night.

May 13

An annual rite called the Lemuria was performed on this date in ancient Roman times to appease the restless spirits of the dead (Lemures), who materialized on this day to haunt the homes where they had once lived. The Lemuria was also held on the eleventh and thirteenth of May. As part of the rite, black beans (symbolic of the Underworld) were tossed as offerings to the ghosts and a powerful prayer was recited nine times.

On this date in the year 1917, the Goddess in the guise of the Virgin Mary appeared to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal. The event, which was the first of six divine appearances from May 11 to October 13, drew worldwide attention.

May 12

On this date, the annual Cat Parade is celebrated in Belgium in honor of the furry feline, an animal sacred to the ancient Egyptians and often used as a familiar of Witches.

Aranya Sashti, a god of the woodlands, is honored in India on this day with an annual festival. He is identified with the Pagan honored deities Pan and Cernunnos.

May 11

An annual rite called the Lemuria was performed on this date in ancient Roman times to appease the restless spirits of the dead (Lemures), who materialized on this day to haunt the homes where they had once lived. The Lemuria was also held on the eleventh and thirteenth of May. As part of the rite, black beans (symbolic of the Underworld) were tossed as offerings to the ghosts and a powerful prayer was recited nine times.

On this date in the year 1659, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned all celebrations of Christmas in the New World after declaring the event to be a Pagan festival of superstition and "a great dishonnor [sic] of God." In England, Christmas festivities had been banned by the Puritans seven years earlier. It wasn't until the year 1660 when Charles II was restored to the throne that the law banning the celebration of Christmas was repealed.

May 10

The sacred marriage of the god Shiva to the goddess Meenakshi is celebrated annually on this date by faithful followers in Madurai, India. Sacred hymns are sung and offerings of incense and white flower petals are made at all temples dedicated to Shiva.

Tin Hau, the Chinese goddess of the North Star, is honored annually on this day with a festival in Hong Kong.

May 9

An annual rite called the Lemuria was performed on this date in ancient Roman times to appease the restless spirits of the dead (Lemures), who materialized on this day to haunt the homes where they had once lived. The Lemuria was also held on the eleventh and thirteenth of May. As part of the rite, black beans (symbolic of the Underworld) were tossed as offerings to the ghosts and a powerful prayer was recited nine times.

May 8

In Cornwall, England, the annual Furry Dance is performed in the streets of Helston on this day in honor of the old Celtic Horned God in the guise of Robin Hood. The festival, which features street dancing and a daylong procession throughout the town for good fortune, is one of the oldest surviving Springtime ceremonies in the world.

The osophists commemorate the death of Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky on this day, which they call White Lotus Day.

May 7

On this date (approximately), a festival called the Thargelia was celebrated by the ancient Greeks and Ionians in honor of Apollo, the god of the sun, prophecy, music, medicine, and poetry. The festival was held once a year on the sacred island of Delos, the traditional birthplace of Apollo as well as the goddess Artemis.

May 6

On this day in the year 1938, the Long Island Church of Aphrodite was established in West Hempsted, New York, by the Reverend Gleb Botkin, a Russian author and son of the court physician to the last Czar of Russia.

May 5

Colour: Pink
Moon Sign: Aries
Incense: Vanilla

Ascension
Cinco de Mayo ( Mexican )
Childrens Day ( Japen/Korea)
Bevrijdingsdag ( NL )
Holocaust Remembrance Day

On this date in the year 2000, according to a group called the Lemurian Fellowship, the legendary lost continent of Mu will rise up from the Pacific Ocean.

In various parts of Mexico and Central America, centuries-old rain ceremonies are performed every year on this day by shamanic priests and priestesses of the Old Faith. The ancient goddesses who preside over rain and fertility are honored and invoked with prayers and offerings.

May 4

Fairy Day. According to Irish folklore, it is on this day that the mischievous fairy folk emerge from their hiding places.

To prevent human children from being stolen by the fairies and replaced by grotesque changelings, an offering of tea and bread must be left on the doorstep for the little people.

For protection against fairies while traveling (especially through heavily wooded areas or open fields), wear your coat inside out. This is said to cause them such great confusion that they are unable to cause any trouble.

May 3

In ancient Rome, an annual women's festival in honor of the earth goddess Bona Dea took place on this date. Sacrifices of sows were made to her in order to promote fertility in women, and the unveiling of sacred objects for only women's eyes to see was included in the celebration of her rites.

May 2

On this date, an annual fertility festival featuring a man wearing the costume of a hobbyhorse, a devilish mask, and a pointed hat is held in England and throughout rural regions across Europe.

Ysahodhara, the consort of the great god Buddha, is honored in India with a sacred festival that takes place on this day each year.

May 1

The Beltane Sabbat is celebrated by Wiccans and Witches throughout the world annually on this date. Beltane (which is also known as May Day, Rood Day, Rudemas, and Walpurgisnacht) it is derived from an ancient Druid fire festival celebrating the union of the Goddess and the Horned God.

It also celebrates the rebirth of the Sun, marking the "death" of Winter and the "birth" of Spring. At dawn, morning dew is gathered from grass and wildflowers to be used in mystical potions for good luck.

Throughout the day, Nature is celebrated by feasts, games, poetry readings, and clockwise dancing around a brightly decorated Maypole.

In ancient Rome, the deity worshipped on this day was the Spring goddess Maia, whose divine powers encouraged the crops to grow. The month of May is named after her.

On this date in the year 1776, the Order of the Illuminati (an occult sect and secret order dedicated to the study of forbidden books, Tantric mysticism, and ceremonial magick) was founded in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt.