It’s almost May! Or perhaps I should say, it’s almost May 1, the pagan holiday known as Beltane.

I’ve written about Beltane and other ancient “fire festivals” before, so we won’t go into that now. Instead, let’s talk about one of the mythological characters often associated with Beltane: the Green Man.

You’ve probably seen him around before, especially if you like Medieval European art or have visited old English churches. Or even if you (or your neighbors) are into yard décor with a sense of humor. Generally speaking, “the Green Man” is the proper name for this guy:

Today you can often find him as a kitschy garden sculpture, but he was officially recognized back in the 1930s as a common decoration on old English churches and pubs. He comes in many varieties and many cultures around the world have something like him, but he doesn’t really have a core myth or even a name. Basically, he’s just a wild, usually bearded face with lots of leaves and acorns and other wild things surrounding it.

This is fun for me as an author, because the Green Man is a little like Cinderella or Beauty. The same way that fairy tales often are shared or develop side-by-side across different cultures, some characters show up time and again in folklore. The Green Man has been associated with England’s Herne the Hunter or Robin Hood, Celtic god Cernunnos, Norse god Odin, Greek/Roman god Pan, and even the Egyptian god Osiris. There’s lots of debate about him and where–or when–he came from. He seems to have existed for a very long time, but a bit vaguely; he’s a sort of persistent notion of man-combined-with-nature.

And what’s this have to do with Beltane? Well, for ancient Celts, May 1 was a celebration of the return of all green things–mostly flowers and leaves and, you know, important food crops, but this Green Man character has weaseled his way into the lore, also. 😉 As expected from someone “wild” and sometimes associated with Pan, he’s generally considered to enjoy a good party!

The Green Man also been on my mind lately because he’s shown up as a character in my current draft of the second novel in the Pomegranate Café Romance series . . . but we’ll talk about that another time. For now, happy almost-May Day! 😀

Selected Sources

There are so many articles about–and pictures of–the Green Man online. Many are British history sites, like historic-uk.com and englishhistory.net. The BBC also has an interesting five-minute video here with lots of examples of Green Men in English churches. On the more pagan side of things, you can get a good overview from learnreligions.com or symbolsage.com. Even Wikipedia‘s article is useful, especially if you’re interested in other cultural heroes and deities he’s been associated with.

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