Fire festival

Date: April 30th – May 1st, or first Full Moon in Taurus. The Scottish tradition of PectiWita celebrates their Sabbat on May 15th. The astronomical date for Old Beltane is usually May 5.

Pronunciation: “BELL-tayn”, “bell-tan”, “BELL-tain”, but also can be “BEEL-teen”, “BEEL-tawn-uh”, or “B’YAL-tinn”.

Etymology: Beltane derives from the Irish Beáltaine or Scottish Gaelic Bealtuinn; both from Old Irish Beltene “bright fire” from belo-te(p)niâ), where belo- is allied to the English word bale (as in bale-fire), the Anglo-Saxon bael, and also the Lithuanian baltas, meaning “white” or “shining” from which the Baltic takes its name. “The bright fire” is known in Welsh as “Calan Mai”, the “Calends of May”. Beltane or Bealtaine (Irish language), Bealltainn (Scottish Gaelic). Mí na Bealtaine “month of the Bealtaine festival” is the name for the month of May in modern Irish. It was formerly spelt “Bealtuinn” in Scottish Gaelic. The name of the month is often abreviated to Bealtaine but this strictly speaking only refers to the first day of summer (May 1) and the festival associated with that day.

Symbolism: Sacred marriage, new life, and the fertility for all living things. As Samhain is about honoring Death, Beltaine, its counter part, is about honoring Life. For modern Pagans, Beltaine is the time of union and pleasure, of celebrating the returning warmth of the Sun, and the greening of Earth. It is about the reconciliation of opposites through love, and the fruitfulness that arises from this reconciliation.

Mythology: Celebrating love, fertility and matrimony. Honoring the Earth as now fully awakened and the start of Summer. Fertility of all areas of life is invoked during this holiday as well as sexual fertility. Fertility is a central theme of Beltane. The people lived in close connection with the Earth. To have food to eat, the crops and the beasts of the fields would have to be fertile. In the time of the ancients, this was a life and death matter. For this reason, we have a number of holidays and rituals that are connected with fertility. The maypole is connected to this theme by way of the viewpoint of it being a phallic symbol.
Beltaine is also one of the only Pagan holidays that is usually celebrated in the full light of day.
It is a time of bonfires and feasting, drumming and dancing; a time of brightly colored ribbons woven around that ancient phallic symbol, the maypole. And it is a time to renew our commitments to the land, to love, and to each other.
Beltaine is one time of the year when the Veil is at its thinnest, honoring the ancestors while celebrating life is important at this time of the year.

Place in the Natural Cycle: Beltaine sees Spring come to and end and Summer begin. For the Celts, this was the end of Winter and start of Summer and is still the traditional first day of Summer in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. This is a Cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice. It is the time when the Sun is fully released from the bondage of Winter and is able to rule over Summer and life once again. This festival marked the beginning of the pastoral Summer season when the herds of livestock were driven out to Summer pastures and mountain grazing lands. The astronomical date for this midpoint (Old Beltane) is slightly later, May 5. At Beltaine the Pleiades star cluster rises just before sunrise on the morning horizon, whereas Winter (Samhain) begins when the Pleiades rises at sunset.

Celtic Tree Month: Willow (Saille)

Druid/Coligny Month: Cutios, Giamonios

Planetary ruler: Venus, Moon

Zodiac: 15 degrees of Taurus

Moon: Bright Moon, Dyad Moon, Flower Moon, Grass Moon, Growing Moon, Hare Moon, Mother’s Moon, Seed Moon

Element: Fire, Air

Threshold/Time of Day: Dawn to noon

Symbols: Butterchurn, bowers, chalice, crossroads, eggs, fire, fields, flowers, May baskets, Maypole, twin fires, ribbons

Colors: Green, white, red, dark yellow

Crystals/Stones: Bloodstone, emerald, sapphire, emerald, rose quartz, lazuli, orange carnelian, yellow agate

Herbs: Angelica, clover, cowslip, damiana, frankincense, foxglove, hibiscus, ivy, meadowsweet, mint, mugwort, primrose, rose, rosemary, saffron, satyrion root, sorrel, St. John’s wort, woodruff, yarrow

Trees: Almond, ash, birch, elder, hawthorn, oak, poplar, rowan, willow

Flowers: Bluebells, cinquefoil, daisies, hawthorn, honeysuckle, lilac, lily of the valley, marigold, primrose, rose

Incense: Frankincense, lilac, passionflower, rose, rosemary

Oils: Passionflower, rose, tuber rose, vanilla

Animals: Cats, cows, doves, goats, honeybees, leopard, lynx, rabbits, swallow, swan,

Astral/Mythological Beings: Faeries, giants, pegasus, satyrs

Musical Instrument: Horns

Household Decorations: Flower wreaths and garlands are typical decorations for this holiday, as well as ribbons and streamers. Leaves, branches and cuttings from traditional trees placed at windows and doorways. Lilacs and hawthorn should be brought inside on this day, along with flowers of all kinds to represent the fertility of the earth.

Traditional Foods: Almonds, breads, dairy foods, green herbal salads, honey, marigold custard, oats, red fruits such cherries and strawberries, sweets, vanilla ice cream. Additional foods to include are oatmeal or barley cakes, sometimes known as “Beltane Cakes”.

Traditional Drinks: Teas made with burdock, damiana, hibiscus, rose hip, saffron. May Bowl punch (wine or non-alcoholic) made of Sweet Woodruff blossoms. Red or pink wines and juice made from red berries are also appropriate.

Special Activities:
v Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.
v Gathering flowers.
v On May Eve, bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it.
v Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend.
v Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty.
v Set up, or fix up, a woodland or garden shrine.
v Favorite Beltaine past times include plaiting and weaving, and in general, anything where you join two substances to make a third.
v Weddings are frequently held on or around Beltane.
v One key action to keep in mind during this time in the Wheel of the Year is to take action on the activities and projects you had planned and started on Ostara.
v Dress in bright colors.
v Light household fires from the Bel fire.
v Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck.
v Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within.
v Witches at this time used to ride broomsticks and jump into the air to show the crops how high to grow (hence the myth of Witches flying on broomsticks).
v Sending flowers to loved ones, planting new gardens, cleaning out the cupboards and general spring-cleaning are all traditional Beltaine gestures.

Magickal Studies: This being a time of great magick is a good time for divinations of all types, and for establishing a woodland or garden shrine. This is a time of self-discovery, love, union and developing your potential for personal growth. Search for, and study of, plant and other totems and power objects from the Land. This is a good time to build shrines, begin gathering for your herb collection, and to make offerings to elementals, faeries and such. Collecting sacred waters and scrying in sacred springs, wells, ponds, other waters. May morning is a magickal time for wild water (dew, flowing streams, and springs), which is collected and used to bathe in for beauty, or to drink for health.

Spellwork: Spellwork to consider includes those for fire, fertility, love, safety, prosperity, divination, and conservation. Also crop blessings, and the household guardians should be honored at this time.

Meditations: Spiritual communion/closeness with deity. Meditations on love, sex and close relationships. Meditation on the Earth and its fertility. The study/meditation of plants and trees.

Ritual Tools: Athame, cauldron, chalice

Altar/Circle Furnishings: Cauldron filled with flowers, fresh flowers, candle and/or lantern, garlands, maypole, mirrors, potted plant or tree, phallic shaped candle, ribbons

Balefire: Ash, birch, oak, poplar

Cauldron: Water and flowers. Or, light a fire within the cauldron. May Bowl Punch may also be placed in the cauldron.

Personal Adornments: Crown and garlands of flowers or crescents, bright colors

Ritual Actions:
v Hang ribbons and wedding charms/tokens on trees.
v The crowing of the May Queen and May King and receiving blessing from them.
v Extinguishing and re-lighting the Bel fire.
v Horn blowing to awaken the land.
v Dancing around the Maypole entwining the ribbons that are symbols of fertility.
v Morris Dancers and pageants (with Hag & Jack-in-Green) to awaken the fertility in the Land.
v Making offerings to encourage the fertility of the land.
v Handfastings are common at this time.
v Couples wishing to conceive children will jump the cauldron or balefire together.
v All rites of fertility such as blessing the garden or planting a tree.

Related posts:

1. Beltaine Ritual
2. Happy Beltaine!