Beltane: Celebrating the Sunshine

Beltane is an ancient celebration to mark the return of the sun. The earth is full of promise, fertile and ready to produce the wonders of summer and the Goddess becomes pregnant by the horned God.

Beltane is traditionally celebrated from dusk on 30 April to dusk on 30 May. It is opposite to Samhain on the Wheel of the Year and a festival of equal importance. Just as at Samhain, when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, so it is at Beltane. Fairies and spirits can walk the earth and the Queen of Fairies rides her white horse (another symbol of Beltane) looking for souls to spirit away with her. Sit under a hawthorn tree on May Eve and if you hear her bells look away, or you may be spirited away too!

Traditionally pagans used to celebrate by young people going a'Maying and enjoying a ‘greenwood marriage' in the woods on May Eve, emerging the next morning, adorned with flowers, to watch the sun rise. As the Christian Church became more powerful, this practice was much frowned upon and the emphasis was removed from fertility and sexuality to purity and chastity.

Puritan writer Phillip Stubbs reportedly said of the greenwood marriages: ‘Of fortie three score maids going to the woods over night, there have scarcely the third part of them returned home again undefiled.'

However, a Beltane-conceived baby is supposed to be lucky. They were often given the name of elves and spirits - Jackson, after Jack in the Green or Robinson after Robin Goodfellow. Strangely though, it was considered unlucky to get married in the conventional sense of the word during May.

Sex and fertility were also celebrated with singing and dancing with ribbons, traditionally around a maypole (representing the God) topped with a crown of flowers (representing the Goddess). A pretty young maiden was crowned the Queen of the May - the most famous of these being Maid Marian.

The fires of Beltane marked the start of summer and served many purposes. Animals were taken out to pasture at Beltane for the summer months and were walked between two fires in a ceremony to produce good health and high milk yield. Practically, however, the purpose of this was to smoke out the parasites that had been in the animals' coats over the winter. The fires were used symbolically to encourage the sun to return and provide a warm summer. Jumping through the fires was thought to bring good luck - those who had just enjoyed a greenwood marriage would jump through the fire to enjoy good fortune, those that were single would hope to find love and travellers hoped for a safe journey.

Flowers also played a large part in the celebrations, as the earth was suddenly abundant with fresh blooms, after the long bare winter months. A crown of elderflowers supposedly enabled the wearer to see evil deeds and undo them. This is also the only day of the year in which hawthorn can be brought into the house; any other day and it is still considered bad luck.

Simple ways to celebrate Beltane in the present day

Dancing naked round a fire may be a bit chilly for some of us, so light plenty of candles instead. Yellow candles are best, but white ones are fine.

Sit outside in the cool night of May Eve with a small fire burning.

Find a hawthorn tree and bring the blossom into the house.

Tie red and green ribbons to a special tree.

And the obvious one... enjoy your own ‘greenwood marriage' - inside is much warmer and more comfortable though!

Jo

 Mayday - winding the pole pic (c) micdphotos - everystockphoto.com 2009