Seelie and Unseelie Rule

The other day I stumbled upon this old thread: https://www.spellsofmagic.com/read_post.html?post=269041

One of the replies states that the Seelie Court rules from May 1st to October 31st, and that the Unseelie Court rules for the other half of the year.

i always try to crossreference information, soI looked into it, and the only source I could find was a site called fairyblossomfestival.com, which seems to be a real life fantasy game of some sort, and not much of a reliable resource as far as researching actual folklore goes.

I thought it might be a reference to the Spring and Summer Courts for the Seelie and Autumn and Winter Courts for the Unseelie, but I've never seen any set dates on either court ruling for a specific time.

Has anyone else come across this information, and if so, do you have the source?

(Oh, and to give credit: the forum replier was user PixieBite. I would simply message this user for a source, but the profile hasn't been active in a while.)

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Those are terms for the Welsh fae folk of legend but those dates I believe are an adaptation for gaming. Germanic and Slavic mythology notes that those types of beings can be seen on May Eve and Harvest on October 31. The Norse Eddas describe them as elves and the Picts and Britons as wights of the land. I haven’t seen any historical references as to when light/dark Elves, Fae or Wights have a scheduled time to be out and about in the world, but the topic is interesting. I will look at this in more detail. Hope someone more knowledgable steps in here to enlighten us and give some resources.

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if it was something made up by a game of some sort. Unfortunately, about half of what comes up when one looks up the Seelie and Unseelie is gaming and other fiction.

There are references to the Fair Folk being more active around Beltane and Samhain. I didn't know there were references in Germanic and Slavic beliefs to dates around the same time. Thanks for pointing that out.

Oh, something I should have included in the original post: the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Courts don't seem to have much standing in original folklore. I'm not sure where this belief originated, but it certainly doesn't seem to be referenced in folklore. None of the resources I've found that mention these seasonal courts have sources, and I see no reason why spring and summer would have been considered more "blessed" than autumn and winter. So if the information that the Seelie rule from May 1st to October 31st and the Unseelie rule from October 31st to May 1st is based on the seasonal courts, I would say it's misinformation.

Welsh folklore is probably your best source for information on the fae. I looked at a few online sources and found a few uncorraborated references between light and dark fae and what they were correlated with, but I could not find any mention of a court system or specific solar/lunar dates that determined when theses entities were most active. I did find an interesting website that deals with Welsh folklore. Take a look at zeluna dot net. Sorry I cannot post a direct link by site rules. Of course also use discretion when surfing sites. I found that one useful for you and did not see anything that appeared problematic. Good luck.

Thank you.

I tend to lean more toward Scottish and occasionally Irish folklore when it comes to researching the Fair Folk, since those are where references to the court systems are, but there's enough crossover between the folklore in the area that information on the Tylwyth Teg could definitely point me toward some similarities. Either way, I enjoy the lore on the Fair Folk in general, so resources on Welsh folklore is much appreciated!

Thanks for the site suggestion. I'll check it out. :)