{"id":832,"date":"2011-05-01T21:46:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T21:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=832"},"modified":"2013-05-12T13:37:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T13:37:18","slug":"mayday-may-day-bealtaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/mayday-may-day-bealtaine\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayday! May Day! Bealtaine!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bhuel<\/strong>, not exactly!\u00a0 \u201cMayday\u201d as an emergency call comes from the French \u201c(Venez) m\u2019aider\u201d (Come help me!)* and the Irish for \u201cmayday\u201d as an SOS remains \u201cmayday,\u201d so we have \u201cc\u00f3ras mayday<\/strong>\u201d (a mayday system) for sailing, etc.\u00a0 In fact, \u201cSOS\u201d also remains exactly the same in Irish, as an internationally understood abbreviation.\u00a0 All the more important when one realizes that there is a regular Irish vocabulary word, not really related to \u201csave our ship\u201d at all, but coincidently akin, at least for anyone with say, and\u00fail i gcaif\u00e9in<\/strong> or the daytime version of \u201csiondr\u00f3m cosa m\u00edshuaimhneacha<\/strong>,\u201d aggravated by sitting in uncomfortable classroom chairs.\u00a0 That\u2019s the word \u201csos<\/strong>,\u201d whose meanings include \u201cpause,\u201d \u201cbreak,\u201d or \u201crecess.\u201d\u00a0 So if the opportunity a bheith ag s\u00edneadh do chos<\/strong> or a bheith ag \u00f3l caife<\/strong> during a mid-class break enables you to make it through a two- or three-hour class, the \u201csos ranga<\/strong>\u201d (class break) is a kind of SOS.\u00a0 Bhuel<\/strong>, my students, anyway, seem to get a \u201ccic\u201d<\/strong> out of the coincidence!<\/p>\n

Back to \u201cBealtaine<\/strong>\u201d itself, or May Day, and that\u2019s \u201cMay Day\u201d mar dh\u00e1 fhocal agus<\/strong> na t\u00faslitreacha i gceannlitreacha<\/strong>.\u00a0 I point that out since society in general is paying less and less attention to ceannlitri\u00fa, roinnt na bhfocal, ponca\u00edocht<\/strong>, and all those other style-sheet goodies as we spend more and more time ag t\u00e9acs\u00e1il.\u00a0 N\u00ed hionann<\/strong> \u201cmayday\u201d agus<\/strong> \u201cMay Day!\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous blogs sa tsraith seo<\/strong> have dealt with the word \u201cBealtaine<\/strong>\u201d in general (2010: \u201cMay Day, Mayflies, Mayweed,\u201d https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/2010\/05\/page\/4\/ and 2009: \u201cBealtaine, Beltain, Beltene, or Beltane for May 1st<\/sup>? YES!\u00a0 Ba\u2019al-tine — NOT!\u201d https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/bealtaine-beltain-beltene-or-beltane-for-may-1st-yes-ba%e2%80%99al-tine-%e2%80%93-not\/).<\/p>\n

Key points are:<\/p>\n

Bealtaine<\/strong> is a feminine noun, 4th<\/sup>-declension if you\u2019re interested,<\/p>\n

M\u00ed na Bealtaine<\/strong> is the month of May<\/p>\n

Notice that feminine singular definite article in the middle of that phrase?\u00a0 In other words, that the word \u201can<\/strong>\u201d (the) has changed to \u201cna<\/strong>\u201d (of the).\u00a0\u00a0Another example with \u201cna<\/strong>\u201d is<\/p>\n

F\u00e9ile na Bealtaine<\/strong>, which, in theory, could refer to any May Festival, but which seems to be trending online toward an arts festival held on the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry, now in its 17th<\/sup> year.\u00a0 At any rate, it has its own website, www.feilenabealtaine.ie<\/a> (natch!)<\/p>\n

Other May Day terms don\u2019t require the definite article:<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 Bealtaine<\/strong>, May Day (itself)<\/p>\n

O\u00edche Bhealtaine<\/strong>, eve of May Day<\/p>\n

crann Bealtaine<\/strong>, Maypole, lit. \u201ctree of May\u201d<\/p>\n

and a classic Irish idiom, now mostly used in the abstract but formerly connected to an actual cow-driving practice:<\/p>\n

a bheith idir dh\u00e1 thine Bhealtaine<\/strong>, to be between two May Day fires, which is basically the same as being between a \u201ccloch<\/strong>\u201d and an \u201c\u00e1it chrua<\/strong>,\u201d between \u201can diabhal<\/strong>\u201d and \u201can fharraige dhomhain ghorm<\/strong>,\u201d between \u201cSciolla<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cCair\u00edbdis<\/strong>,\u201d or whatever other pair of unappealing choices you can name.<\/p>\n

And the connection to cattle-driving?\u00a0 The lighting of bonfires was an important part of every quarter day in the Celtic calendar, as alluded to in Dancing at Lughnasa<\/em>.\u00a0 For May Day, the custom was to make two fires, with a narrow path in between, through which the cattle were driven.\u00a0 Exactly why, hard to say, but presumably if your cows could make it through this narrow and dangerous path, you could also withstand whatever other harshness the future would present.<\/p>\n

Sin \u00e9 don bhlag seo.<\/strong>\u00a0 Maybe with this heads-up, you might want to check out F\u00e9ile na Bealtaine<\/strong> in Kerry next year.\u00a0 It\u2019s held \u201cgo luath i m\u00ed na Bealtaine\u201d<\/strong> (early in May).\u00a0 SGF \u00f3 R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Deir cuid daoine <\/strong>\u201cm\u2019aidez\u201d \u2013 an bunrud c\u00e9anna, p\u00e9 sc\u00e9al \u00e9.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gluais: and\u00fail i(n)<\/strong>, addiction to; ceannlitri\u00fa<\/strong>, capitalization (not to confused with caipitli\u00fa<\/strong>, capitalization in the financial sense), ionann<\/strong>, same; m\u00edshuaimhneach<\/strong>, restless; na bhfocal<\/strong> [nuh WOK-ul], of the words; ponca\u00edocht<\/strong>, punctuation; roinnt<\/strong>, division; s\u00edneadh<\/strong>, stretching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Bhuel, not exactly!\u00a0 \u201cMayday\u201d as an emergency call comes from the French \u201c(Venez) m\u2019aider\u201d (Come help me!)* and the Irish for \u201cmayday\u201d as an SOS remains \u201cmayday,\u201d so we have \u201cc\u00f3ras mayday\u201d (a mayday system) for sailing, etc.\u00a0 In fact, \u201cSOS\u201d also remains exactly the same in Irish, as an internationally understood abbreviation.\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[4297,211619,288587,2041,289081,2080,5111,288879,289359,2204,211620,5667,5804,287609,3295,288229,3296,287859,288433,275823],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-bealtaine","tag-between-two-may-day-fires","tag-bhealtaine","tag-cow","tag-crann-bealtaine","tag-driving","tag-eve","tag-eve-of-may-day","tag-herding","tag-idiom","tag-idir-dha-thine-bhealtaine","tag-irish","tag-la-bealtaine","tag-maidez","tag-may-day","tag-mayday","tag-maypole","tag-mbealtaine","tag-oiche-bhealtaine","tag-tree-of-may"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3975,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/3975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}