The Tree and the Sun

[pegkerr]

Yesterday was our most important community ritual of the year, put on by In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre: the May Day Parade, with the Tree of Life ceremony at Powderhorn Park afterwards. The weather was gorgeous, so the crowd was huge. (And after the cold, rainy and miserable spring we've had, a sunny day with the temperature at about 65 degrees with little wind felt like not just like 'a nice day' but an expected gift from the gods). I didn't take pictures this year, but simply concentrated on enjoying the parade. The girls have been too busy this year (what with karate, Girl Scouts and National History Day) to participate in the workshops where people make their costumes and floats, so they didn't march in the parade. We were at the corner of 34th Street and Bloomington Avenue, where the parade turns to go into Powderhorn Park.

Afterwards, we gathered with a group of friends on the southeast side of the lake for a picnic. The drum jam set up right next to us, perhaps inevitably, but they were a small group at first, and so it didn't make conversation impossible. Fiona went to watch the Tree of Life ceremony at the end of the lake, but Delia and I decided to stay with the rest of the picnic group and lounged and ate the potluck offerings. The Tree of Life ceremony was late getting started, but we kept an eye on it from afar. When the horns started sounding, signaling it was time for the Sun to row across the lake to bring the Tree of Life awake, I sat up and started watching more closely.

The progress of the rowers was slow (the wind is inevitably against the rowers each year, and the Sun acts as a giant sail, always slowing them down). As the floatilla kept doggedly battling their way across toward the opposite shore, I felt a lump start up in my throat, and I drifted over to the edge of the lake to lean against a tree.

Oh, how often in this past very hard winter have I longed for the return of the sun! I thought of the struggles with the layoff, when fears and doubts seemed so ascendent. I thought of all the dark days, when the depression seemed so crushing, how I kept playing The Mountain Goats' song "This Year" ("I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.") I thought of how hard I had tried to see the Holy Tree inside of myself, and the inspiration of the Tree Project, of all the trees in pictures and gifts that had been sent to me by all of you, to give me hope.

Now tears were running down my face in earnest. The horns continued to sound, a wild clarion call ringing above the roars and cheers and clapping of the assembled crowd. Finally, FINALLY, the sun landed on shore, the sunrunners dressed in colors of flame, their banners streaming out behind them, tore down the hill to greet and honor it, and the Tree of Life rose and towered above the crowd, spreading Her arms wide to greet the spring, to greet the day, to bestow on us all Her blessing. To my surprise, then the Tree turned away from the crowd on blanket hill and spread Her arms toward the lake, toward me, as if to say, yes, I see you. Yes, I am here, and I cried even harder out of sheer happiness. I don't remember the Tree ever turning that way before.

After a few minutes, I managed to pull myself together. I drifted back over to the picnic blankets, pulled out a napkin, and wiped my face dry. Nobody noticed or commented. The drummers drummed on and on, pulsing out the heartbeat of a people, a community. Winter is over, and now it's time to dance.

I pulled a piece of papaya from a tupperware container and ate it. It was delicious. minnehaha B. handed me a lamb sausage hot off the grill, so big and juicy that it was almost too much for the bun it rested in to handle. Fiona came back from the Tree of Life ceremony, flopped down on the blanket, and reached for some chips. Delia wandered off and borrowed a hulahoop and showed off what she can do with those marvelous abs she's developed from karate.

The sun poured down like honey on us as we sat there together, friends and family, listening to the drums, talking together and celebrating the spring.

Read a parade report from naomikritzer here and another from janradder, with pictures, here. More pictures here by neugotik. Picnic reports from dreamshark here and skylarker here. Here's a picture from the parade from barondave; I hope he will post more pictures soon. If you have links to other parade reports or pictures, please leave them in the comments.

Here are pictures of the Tree and the Sun from previous years, courtesy of dd_b:





You can see dd_b's excellent pictures of the Tree of Life Ceremony from a previous year here (Thanks, dd_b!). Here is a picture of Fiona in the sunrunner costume, the year she participated in the pageant.

Comments

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

Only somewhat surprised that we didn't see you-- there were a lot of people there.

You made it, Peg. Spring is finally here. Thank God. I have a few pics that Garry took yesterday that I may get around to posting.

[faeryguinevere.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful gift. Thanks for sharing your story. I wish I had been able to stay for the tree ceremony, but had to get my honey to the airport after the parade. I hope this spring and summer is everything you want it to be.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Those are excellent photos from dd_b! I'm glad the ceremony was so moving for you. I'm afraid I took it a little for granted: I'd been sitting in the sun too long - without my broad-brimmed hat - which goes to demonstrate the aptness of the phrase, 'too much of a good thing.'

I enjoyed our chat and was sorry to have to leave so soon.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yes. I was just sure the sun flotilla had new heads on the fronts of their canoes this year, and this picture shows it. And the ceremony picture is from the year we were in it, participating as blades of grass like the person dressed in green here. We also carried the banners naming the war dead at an early part of the ceremony.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

soarhead is posting his excellent photos.

K.

[maribou]

This was truly heartwarming. Thanks for posting about it.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

That sounds (and looks) utterly marvelous.

[aome.livejournal.com]

Note to self: visit MN first weekend in May. :D You always make it sound like such a fantastic experience - I wish I could be there. And ... oh man, I can only imagine how good a lamb sausage must be.

You made it to spring!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

How I would love to take you and your girls to May Day! If you ever ever ever are in this neck of the woods the first Sunday in May, we'll make sure it happens!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I found a YouTube video from a few years ago which gives you an idea of what the Tree of Life ceremony is like (that was the year Fiona was a sunrunner). And here's a video with bits of the parade.

[musicbearmn.livejournal.com]

I really a fun time (and I was in the parade to boot). It made me proud that we are a funder....there isn't an event in town that matches our mission so exactly as May Day does.