Rough Guide to the Festival of Beltane

Tomorrow is the festival of Beltane which will see pagans and wiccans celebrating the fertility of the earth. But what is Beltane?

Here is a very rough guide so you can join in with your next door neighbour when he’s dancing around the Maypole!

Beltane

Beltane or Beltain is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 30 April–1 May, or halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It was observed in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish it is Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Bealltainn, and in Manx Gaelic Boaltinn or Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals; along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

In ancient times, rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers.

All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire.

As a festival, Beltane had largely died-out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the latter 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane, or something based on Beltane, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Beltane at the other end of the year (31 October–1 November).

Pagan Wiccan About.com says that Beltane is about fertility, in fact they say:

April’s showers have given way to rich and fertile earth, and as the land greens, there are few celebrations as representative of fertility as Beltane. Observed on May 1st, festivities typically begin the evening before, on the last night of April.

It’s a time to welcome the abundance of the fertile earth, and a day that has a long (and sometimes scandalous) history. Depending on your tradition, there are a number of ways you can celebrate this Sabbat.

Depending on your particular tradition, there are many different ways you can celebrate Beltane, but the focus is nearly always on fertility. It’s the time when the earth mother opens up to the fertility god, and their union brings about healthy livestock, strong crops, and new life all around.

Here’s a list of some of the rituals that a pagan or wiccan can perform for Beltane:

• Celebrate Beltane with a Maypole Dance
• Beltane Bonfire Ritual – a group ceremony
• Hold a Family Abundance Rite for Beltane
• Honor the Sacred Feminine with a Goddess Ritual
• Beltane Planting Ritual for Solitaries
• Handfastings and Weddings
• Beltane Prayers

However, for the practising Pagan or Wiccan, it’s not all about rituals. People are encouraged to decorate their homes and make crafts e.g. Floral Crowns, Maypole Altar Centerpiece, Faerie Chair & a May Day Cone Basket

No Pagan celebration is really complete without a meal to go along with it. For Beltane, people celebrate with foods that honour the fertility of the earth. Like light spring soups, Scottish bannocks, fertility bread loaves, and more.

Common Beltane Festivals

• Newfoundland, the custom of decorating the May Bush is also still extant.
• Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds a traditional week-long “Beltane Fair” every year in June, when a local girl is crowned Beltane Queen on the steps of the parish church. Like other Borders festivals, it incorporates a Common Riding.
• Since 1988, a Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year during the night of 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland. Inspired by traditional Beltane, this festival is a modern arts and cultural event which incorporates myth and drama from a variety of world cultures and diverse literary sources.
• The Beltane Fire Festival 2013 will be held on Calton Hill, Edinburgh tonight (30th April)
• You can celebrate Beltane at Thornborough Henge in North Yorkshire on 5th May.

Do celebrate Beltane and having your own festival? We’d like to know, contact us on news@llanellitown.com.

Click here to find out more about Beltane.

Source of information: Wikipedia/Beltane