UUnique Traditions and Holidays

May Day, AKA Beltane, is for dancing around maypoles in honor of the fertility of the Earth made possible by the increased warmth of the Sun. The maypole dance is a ceremonial folk dance performed as a part of May Day festivities. The maypole is a tall, vertical pole decorated with flowers and ribbons. Dancers hold the ribbons, moving in opposite directions around the pole and intertwining their ribbons as they go. The maypole dance is the survival of a custom older than Christianity around a living tree as part of spring rites.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton (and the South Florida Bryn Mawr Club) invites you and your family to join us on the Sunday service closest to the first of May (AKA Beltane) and continue the tradition. The dance spans centuries and continents, with costumes and controversies.

What you need to know:

• We welcome you to attend our 10:30 AM UU worship service, or arrive at 11:30 AM for our coffee service.
• Potluck brunch with strawberries, cream, and champagne starts around 11:45 AM.
• Traditional dance around the Maypole around 12:15 PM.
• Music: Traditional English air To the Maypole accompanied by percussion – bring your own percussion or use our drums and bells.
• Dress: Traditional white or floral dress. Garlands and floral boutonnieres suggested.

May Day also goes by the name of Beltane. Beltane is a Pagan holiday, and one of the eight Sabbats. It falls about halfway between the spring equinox (Ostara) and the coming summer solstice (Litha). The holiday celebrates spring at its peak, and the coming summer. This festival is commemorated with bonfires, maypoles and dancing. Ceremonies honor the May Queen and the Green Man, and rituals are performed to protect crops and cattle, produce and people, to encourage growth and fertility.

Maypole Dancers 2024

Join the BRAce of CUUPS Pagan Study Group for our  Midsummer Celebration  Outdoor Rite

The 21st of June at 8 PM (weather permitting)
Celebrate the seasons change! A Nature-centered night of pagan Litha traditions with Singing, S’Mores and a Sunset Labyrinth Walk lit by candlelight luminaria. Bring Your Own Beach Chair or Blanket.

Water Communion is a water ceremony held once a year, at the beginning of the new church year (September).

Members bring to the service a small amount of water from a place that is special to them. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water together into a large bowl. As the water is added, the person who brought it tells why this water is special to them. The combined water is symbolic of our shared faith coming from many different sources. It is blessed by the congregation, and later boiled to be used as the congregation’s “holy water” in child dedication ceremonies and similar events.

In Hinduism, any day that you abide by the Dharmas, the “right way of living,” is a triumph of good over evil, the “order and custom” that sustains life and make the Universe possible. As Unitarian Universalists, the Seven Principles guide our actions in much the same way. During the Day of Tools and Equipment, we honor this source of truth by cleaning and caring for our tools and honoring the traditions that sustain order and justice in our world so that all may one day live in a peaceful and just world.

Ayudha Puja (“worship of tool”) is inspired by the Hindu observation in the month of September (observed three weeks from the date of the autumnal equinox). On this occasion, the implements employed by people of various professions and walks of life are customarily venerated. The religious significance of this occasion is primarily dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of learning, with the practice of educational materials such as the books of a student and the tools of an artisan. Pens, pencils, musical instruments, and other equipment are placed on a pedestal for veneration and contemplation, to signify the victory of knowledge over ignorance. In the contemporary era, the tradition of this occasion is retained by reverence for all implements that help one earn the livelihood: the consecration of computers and typewriters, in the same manner as practiced in the past for weapons of warfare.

May we all have a Happy Ayudha Puja and best wishes for a year of success in the great work we do.

A tradition of remembrance that is unique to the UU Fellowship of Boca Raton. We write the names of friends, family members, and other loved ones in our lives who have died on colorful ribbons, bringing them to the wreath which hangs in our sanctuary. We also remember those members of the congregation who died in the last 12 months. To live in hearts that love is not to die.

Celebrate the seasons change! For centuries, people have celebrated the shift of the winter solstice. Now our Northern hemisphere is tilted farthest away from the Sun. The nights are longest, days are shortest, and the sunlight is weak. Over the world, many groups from many different faith traditions observe this time when the power of the dark feels at its fullest. At the UU Fellowship of Boca Raton, we host a Winter Solstice Celebration: a special service of song and stories and stillness to create a sacred space. Please join us for a night of music and meditation, on a rite into the darkness to bring forth the gifts of the Light. In the midst of winter, come discover within what Albert Camus described as “an invincible summer.”

O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth

Merry Christmas! Join us on December 24th at 6 PM for scripture readings and a short message from Interim Minister Rev. Kathy Rickey to celebrate the birth of Jesus, a Jewish leader whose life and words have changed the minds and hearts of many to the side of goodness, generosity and caring. Our worship service will also feature traditional Christmas carols to sing together, solos and inspiring accompaniments and will close with the lighting of all congregants’ candles.

The living tradition which Unitarian Universalists share draws from many sources. Grateful for religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision, with:

• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;