Depending on your school's schedule and who stays in the area afterwards, Beltane will probably be your last chance of the school year to work with your present group. End the year with a bang by celebrating the Sabbat with a big party/ritual for your graduating members. Not only does the word "party" bring in those members who have been in hiding in the study areas of the library since Imbolc, but if the weather's nice, you can make it a golden opportunity to branch out to the community at this time, as well. If your group started up in the beginning of the school year, you may have made some local contacts by now and you can even invite them to join in, too.

May Day--what a great time to possibly get some more publicity for your group. As you know, people can't join if they don't know about you. Like with Samhain, this is the perfect opportunity to have the school newspaper do an interest article on your group. This is, after all, our second biggest holiday of the year! I remember celebrating May Day when I was in elementary school (back then, no one yelled about Separation of Church and State because the Pagan roots weren't as well known, either) with carnival-type activities that everyone could join in. You can do the same with your group.

Make paper flowers and put them into "May Baskets," little paper baskets with flowers and maybe some small goodies or trinkets, and hang them on the doors of your neighbors, your RA's, professors' offices, or anyone else you think is special. If you're feeling bold, you can put one on the door of your Chacellor's house!

A ritual can be a lot of fun and very cathartic around Finals. As stated before, honor any graduating members of your group. You can have a theme in your ritual of "knighting" your graduating members and giving them a task of "success" as they enter a new phase in their lives. If the leader of your group is graduating, s/he can do a "passing of the wand" to the next group leader. This would also be a good time to compile all of your group's rituals into one Book of Shadows. You can do it scrapbook-style and include pictures of your events, members, newspaper clippings, or anything else that seems relevant to the year. If you use the same BOS in your group from one year to the next, be sure to have a page where members can sign messages for future members of the group, so the history is always remembered. Your group BOS makes a great yearbook in this manner, but is far more functional.

If you do choose to have a ritual, don't forget to see about having a Maypole dance. This seems harder than it really is. My group once managed to have a member climb our favorite tree, Sylvia, where we held all our outdoor rituals. A cable was tied to a branch, and weighted on the bottom. We then had ribbons tied around the top, and when we held our dance, we wove the ribbons around the cable. The fun part was we left the ribbons tied into a pretty bow, and left it there. It wasn't removed until around Samhain of the next school year!

Finally, don't forget how important the bonfires were to historical pagan cultures. Sure, people may have issues with lighting a bonfire on campus without "good reason" (colleges around here hold them for defeating their rival in basketball), but that doesn't mean you can't have a cookout. If there's a public park with grills at a picnic area, you can hold your "balefires" there. Bring some good food (don't forget the makings for S'mores) and hold a group picnic. If you're thinking about going late into the evening, be sure to bring some citronella incense (yes, the Off or Raid brands will do just fine...we're thinking function here) to ward off any unwanted bugs. Sit around the dying flames and talk with your group...reminisce about the year, tell people how you feel about them, and make sure you laugh a lot.

Keep in contact with your members, even those who are graduating, for the next year...start planning for the Fall, and vow to each other that your group's traditions will continue!