Merry Meet to all of You!
Floralia was the festival of the Roman goddess Flora (Flora was indigenous to the Roman region, although her origins most likely herald from the Sabines or Oscans. Flora is the spirit of flowers and springtime, embodying the flowering and fruition of everything in nature, including us humans. All flowers are sacred to her, and often she is pictured with a cornucopia. Flora embodies both the pleasure of the moment as well as the promise of a fruitful future (with flowers leading to fruit and sexual intercourse resulting in babies).
If you read the blog about Beltaine, you might have noticed that I mentioned Floralia and Walburgisnacht as two names for the festival, and I would like to explain their origins a bit further.
While Beltaine is the May festival based on Celtic origins, Floralia and Walburgis are rooted in Roman, respectively German traditions.
Floralia
Floralia was the festival of the Roman goddess Flora (Flora was indigenous to the Roman region, although her origins most likely herald from the Sabines or Oscans. Flora is the spirit of flowers and springtime, embodying the flowering and fruition of everything in nature, including us humans. All flowers are sacred to her, and often she is pictured with a cornucopia. Flora embodies both the pleasure of the moment as well as the promise of a fruitful future (with flowers leading to fruit and sexual intercourse resulting in babies).The Floralia was celebrated annually from April 28th to the beginning of May and honoured the female body (Flora is sometimes understood as the original Queen of May). With its strong ties to fruition and sexuality, the Floralia were originally celebrated nude, until clothing was insisted on by the Roman authorities in the third century AD. They stopped being celebrated in the 4th century AD, when all pagan festivals were banned.
Walburgisnacht 
Walburgisnacht, or Walburgis Night, is the German celebration of May Eve.
Walburgis (or Walburga) was a popular German women’s name in former times, but the original Walburgis (Walpurgis) was a spirit or goddess, who manifests as a beautiful lady with long flowing hair, a crown and fiery shoes. Her attributes are a spindle and a three cornered mirror, which reveals the future. Walburgis was involved in rituals to banish the winter and allow the emergence of summer.
In tradition, for nine nights before May Day, Walburgis, as the Lady of the summer, is chased by the Wild Hunt, so she seeks refuge among the people, who leave their doors and windows open for her to find safety from the hunt and the frost. Houses and barns were decorated with special May Eve plants, which carried the blessings of witch deities. Elder wood, Alder branches and Ground Ivy were among these. The lighting of fires, to keep the forces of the hunt at bay, was also part of the celebrations.
Under the influence of Christendom, Walburgisnacht transformed into a celebration to drive out pagan forces rather than the forces of winter, finally, in the 8th century AD, becoming a festival of a Christian saint, rather than that of a goddess of summer. (St Walburga was the niece of St Bonifaz and an English abbess, born around 710 AD in Wessex, who founded several religious houses in Germany during the 8th century AD. She was canonized after her death in 779 AD.)
The traditional rituals and decorations, like fires and plants, were now used to ward away witches and forces of evil, who were said to be out in force on the night of May Eve. Mass conversions (Hexentänze) were allegedly taking place on mountain peaks, of which the most famous is the ‘Brocken’ in the Harz region of Germany.
Enjoy May Eve,
May Blessings
Ilona 
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