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Beltane (Bhealltainn in Scotland) is the third of the Cross-Quarter Day Celebrations and falls opposite Samhain on the Wheel Of The Year. These were considered to be the two most important days in the Celtic calendar as they are the most recognized mark of the two main seasons.It is celebrated on May 1st and is also known as May Day.
Whereas Samhain is mostly about celebrating and honouring the dead, Beltane is all about life and fertility. This is when the Great Horned God and The Goddess unite to bring nature into full bloom. Animals are transferred from their winter pens out to summer pastures and this is the season for new born lambs. The Great Rite is often en-acted on this day and it symbolizes the sexual union of the God and Goddess. The ceremony involves an atheme (ceremonial knife, which represents a phallic symbol) being inserted into a chalice (the female symbol).
The word Beltane comes from the word "Bale-Fire" and, even today, fires are lit all over Britain and Ireland. A Beltane Fire Festival as been held every year since 1988 in Edinburgh and is attended by around 15,000 people each year. In Scotland, the bale-fires were required to be lit from another and at the end of the evening it was tradition to take home a smouldering piece of the Beltane bale-fire and use it to light the first cook-fire of the summer. However, the piece of bale-fire had to be taken, not asked for, as it was believed that Faeries could not light their own fires and so would attend the Beltane celebrations disguised as humans and request a smouldering piece of Beltane bale-fire. If given, the faerie would have control over the human.
Fear of faeries was rife at this time of year. It was customary for daisy chains to be placed around children's head or necks to protect them against the faeries. Bells were considered the best protection against faeries and this tradition is still seen today with Morris Dancer's bells.
Another tradition was the May Pole which was another symbol of the male/female union. The pole represents the male symbol and the ribbons represent the birth canal being woven around it by eight dancers (four couples) who represent the eight sabbats. Traditionally, the May Pole was the communal pine tree which had been decorated at Yule and then had it's lower braches removed.
This is also the perfect time to celebrate with a bbq as the firey coals could be a modern twist on the Beltane bale-fire. Other appropriate foods could be salads containing lots of young leaves, eggs, honey, dairy products and oats. Goats and rabbits were sacred at Beltane, the goat representing the Great Horned God and the rabbit representing the Goddess. Goats could be relied on to provide milk, cheese and butter and the rabbit is a prolific breeder - essential to the fertility celebration! Mead is the perfect accompaniment to Beltane foods as it is made from honey (a Beltane traditional food) and is thought to be an aphrodisiac.
Beltane is the traditional time to make love to someone you truly care about (be careful unless you want to represent the Rabbit in more ways than one!) and May/June is a popular time for handfasting ceremonies for couples who mated during Beltane.
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