Beltane translated means
"fire of Bel" or "bright fire" - the "bale-fire".
(English - bale;
Anglo-Saxon bael; Lithuanian baltas (white))
Bel (Bel, Bile, Beli, Belinus, Belenos) is the known as the bright
and shinning one, a Celtic Sun God.
Beli is the father,
protector, and the husband of the Mother Goddess.
Beltane
is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc
and Ostara.
Beltane is the second
principal Celtic festival (the other being Samhain).
Celebrated approximately
halfway between Vernal (spring) equinox
and the midsummer (Summer
Solstice).
Beltane traditionally
marked the arrival if summer in ancient times.
At Beltane, the Pleiades
star cluster rises just before sunrise on the morning horizon,
whereas winter (Samhain)
begins when the Pleiades rises at sunset.
The Pleiades is a cluster
of seven closely placed stars, the seven sisters,
in the constellation of
Taurus, near his shoulder.
When looking for the
Pleiades with the naked eye, remember it looks like a
tiny dipper-shaped pattern
of six moderately bright stars
(the seventh can be seen
on very dark nights) in the constellation of Taurus.
It stands very low in the
east-northeast sky for just a few minutes before sunrise.
Beltane, and its counterpart
Samhain, divide the year into its two primary seasons,
winter (Dark Part) and summer (Light Part).
As Samhain is about
honoring Death, Beltane, its counter part, is about honoring Life.
It is the time when the
sun is fully released from his bondage of winter and
able to rule over summer
and life once again.
Beltane, like Samhain, is
a time of "no time" when the veils
between the two worlds are at their thinnest.
No time is when the two
worlds intermingle and unite and the magic abounds!
It is the time when the
Faeries return from their winter respite,
carefree and full of faery
mischief and faery delight.
On the night before
Beltane, in times past,
folks would place rowan
branches at their windows and doors for protection,
many otherworldly occurrences
could transpire during this time of "no time".
Traditionally on the Isle
of Man, the youngest member of the family gathers primroses
on the eve before Beltane
and throws the flowers at the door of the home for protection.
In Ireland it is believed
that food left over from May Eve must not be eaten,
but rather buried or left
as an offering to the faery instead.
Much like the tradition of leaving of whatever is not harvested
from the fields on Samhain,
food on the time of no
time is treated with great care.
When the veils are so thin
it is an extremely magical time,
it is said that the Queen
of the Faeries rides out on her white horse.
Roving about on Beltane
eve She will try to entice people away to the Faeryland.
Legend has it that if you
sit beneath a tree on Beltane night,
you may see the Faery
Queen or hear the sound of Her horse's bells as
She rides through the
night. Legend says if you hide your face, She will pass you by
but if you look at Her,
She may choose you. There is a Scottish ballad of this called Thomas the
Rhymer,
in which Thomas chooses to
go the Faeryland with the Queen and has not been seen since.
Beltane has been an
auspicious time throughout Celtic lore,
it is said that the Tuatha de Danaan landed in north-west Connacht
on Beltane.
The Tuatha de Danaan, it
is said, came from the North through the air in a mist to Ireland.
After the invasion by the
Milesians, the Tuatha faded into the Otherworld, the Sidhe, Tir na nOg.
The beginning of summer
heralds an important time,
for the winter is a
difficult journey and weariness and disheartenment set in,
personally one is tired
down to the soul. In times past the food stocks were low;
variety was a distant
memory. The drab non-color of winter's end perfectly
represents the dullness
and fatigue that permeates on so many levels to this day.
We need Beltane, as the
earth needs the sun, for our very Spirit cries out
for the renewal of summer
jubilation.
Beltane marks that the
winter's journey has passed and summer has begun,
it is a festival of
rapturous gaiety as it joyfully heralds the arrival of summer in her full garb.
Beltane, however, is still
a precarious time, the crops are still very young and tender,
susceptible to frost and
blight. As was the way of ancient thought,
the Wheel would not turn
without human intervention.
People did everything in
their power to encourage the growth of the Sun and His light,
for the Earth will not produce without the warm love of the strong
Sun.
Fires, celebration and
rituals were an important part of the Beltane festivities,
as to insure that the
warmth of the Sun's light would promote the fecundity of the earth.
Beltane marks the passage
into the growing season,
the immediate rousing of
the earth from her gently awakening slumber,
a time when the pleasures
of the earth and self are fully awakened.
It signals a time when the
bounty of the earth will once again be had.
May is a time when flowers
bloom, trees are green and life has again returned
from the barren landscape
of winter, to the hope of bountiful harvests, not too far away,
and the lighthearted bliss
that only summer can bring.
Beltane is the time of the
yearly battle between
Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythur
ap Greidawl for Creudylad in Welsh mythology.
Gwyn ap Nudd the Wild
Huntsman of Wales, he is a God of death and the Annwn.
Creudylad is the daughter
of Lludd (Nudd) of the Silver Hand (son of Beli).
She is the most beautiful
maiden of the Island of Mighty.
A myth of the battle of
winter and summer for the magnificent blossoming earth.
In the myth of Rhiannion
and Pwyll,
it is the evening of
Beltane that Rhiannon gives birth to their son.
The midwives all fell
asleep at the same time,
as they were watching over
Rhiannon and her new baby, during which he was taken.
In order to protect
themselves, they smeared blood (from a pup) all over Rhiannon,
to which they claim she
had eaten her son. The midwives were believed,
and Rhiannon was forced to
pay penance for seven years.
She had to carrying people
on her back from the outside of the gate to the palace,
although rarely would any
allow her to do so. The baby's whereabouts were a mystery.
Oddly, every Beltane
night, one of Pwyll's vassals, Teirnyon Twryv Vliant,
had a mare that gave birth
but the colt disappeared.
One Beltane night Teirnyon
Twryv Vliant awaited in the barn for the mare to foal,
when she did, he heard a
tremendous noise and a clawed arm came
through the window and
grabbed the colt.
Teirnyon cut off the arm
with his sword, and then heard a wailing.
He opened the door and found a baby, he brought it to his wife and
they adopted Gwri Wallt
Euryn (Gwri of the Golden Hair).
As he grew he looked like
Pwyll and they remembered they found him on the night
Rhiannon's baby became
lost. Teirnyon brought Gwri of the Golden Hair to the castle,
told the story, and he was
adopted back to his parents, Rhiannon and Pwyll,
and named by the head
druid, Pryderi (trouble) from the first word
his mother had said when
he was restored to her.
"Trouble is, indeed,
at an end for me, if this be true".
This myth illustrates the
precariousness of the Beltane season,
at the threshold of
Summer, the earth awakening,
winter can still reach its
long arm in and snatch the Sun away (Gwri of the Golden hair).
"Ne'er cast a clout
'til May be out" (clout: Old English for cloth/clothing).
If indeed the return of
summer is true than the trouble (winter)
is certainly over, however
one must be vigilant.
On Beltane eve the Celts
would build two large fires,
Bel Fires, lit from the
nine sacred woods.
The Bel Fire is an
invocation to Bel (Sun God) to bring
His blessings and
protection to the tribe.
The herds were ritually
driven between two needfires (fein cigin), built on a knoll.
The herds were driven
through to purify, bring luck and protect them
as well as to insure their
fertility before they were taken to summer grazing lands.
An old Gaelic adage:
"Eadar da theine Bhealltuinn" - "Between two Beltane
fires".
The Bel fire is a sacred
fire with healing and purifying powers.
The fires further
celebrate the return of life, fruitfulness to the earth and the burning away of
winter.
The ashes of the Beltane
fires were smudged on faces and scattered in the fields.
Household fires would be
extinguished and re-lit with fresh fire from the Bel Fires.
Celebration includes
frolicking throughout the countryside, maypole dancing,
leaping over fires to
ensure fertility, circling the fire three times (sun-wise)
for good luck in the
coming year, athletic tournaments feasting, music, drinking,
children collecting the
May: gathering flowers. Children gathering flowers, hobby horses,
May birching and folks go
a maying. Flowers, flower wreaths and
garlands are typical
decorations for this holiday, as well as ribbons and streamers.
Flowers are a crucial
symbol of Beltane, they signal the victory of Summer over
Winter and the blossoming
of sensuality in all of nature and the bounty it will bring.
May birching or May
boughing, began on Beltane Eve,
it is said that young men
fastened garland and boughs on the windows and doors
of the young maidens upon
which their sweet interest laid.
Mountain ash leaves and
Hawthorne branches meant indicated love whereas thorn meant disdain.
This perhaps, is the
forerunner of old May Day custom of hanging bouquets hooked on one's doorknob?
Young men and women
wandered into the woods before daybreak of
May Day morning with
garlands of flowers and/or branches of trees.
They would arrive; most
rumpled from joyous encounters,
in many areas with the
maypole for the Beltane celebrations.
Pre-Christian society's
thoughts on human sexuality and fertility
were not bound up in guilt
and sin, but rather joyous in the less restraint expression of human passions.
Life was not an exercise
but rather a joyful dance, rich in all beauty it can afford.
In ancient Ireland there
was a Sacred Tree named Bile, which was the center of the clan, or Tuatha.
As the Irish Tree of Life,
the Bile Pole, represents the connection
between the people and the
three worlds of Bith: The Skyworld (heavens),
The Middleworld (our
world), and The Otherworld.
Although no longer the
center life, the Bile pole has survived as the Beltane Maypole.
The Maypole is an
important element to Beltane festivities,
it is a tall pole decorated
with long brightly colored ribbons, leaves, flowers and wreaths.
Young maidens and lads
each hold the end of a ribbon,
and dance revolving around
the base of the pole, interweaving the ribbons.
The circle of dancers
should begin, as far out from the pole as the length of ribbon allows,
so the ribbons are taut.
There should be an even number of boys & girls.
Boys should be facing
clockwise and girls counterclockwise.
They each move in the
direction that they are facing, weaving with the next,
around to braid the
ribbons over-and-under around the pole. Those passing on the inside will have
to duck,
those passing on the
outside raise their ribbons to slide over.
As the dances revolve
around the pole the ribbons will weave creating a pattern,
it is said that the
pattern will indicate the abundance of harvest year.
In some areas there are
permanent Maypoles,
perhaps a recollection of
ancient clan Bile Pole memory.
In other areas a new
Maypole is brought down on Beltane Eve out from the wood.
Even the classical wood
can vary according to the area tradition is pulled from,
most frequently it seems
to be birch as "the wood", but others are
mentioned in various
historical documents.
Today in some towns and
villages a mummer called Jack in the Green
(drawing from the Green
man), wears a costume made of green leaves as
he dances around the May
pole. Mumming is a dramatic performance of exaggerated characters
and at Beltane the
characters include Jack in the Green and the Fool.
The Fool, and the Fool's
journey, symbolism can be understood in relation to Beltane
as it is the beginning of
beginnings, the emergence from the void of nothingness (winter),
as one can also see the
role of the green man as the re-greening of the world.
Traditionally in many
areas Morris dancers can be found dancing around the Maypole.
Morris dancing can be
found in church records in Thame England going back to 1555.
Morris dancing is thought
to have originated many centuries ago as part of ancient religious ceremonies,
however it seems that
Morris dancing became associated with Mayday during the Tudor times,
and its originating
history is not all that easily traced, as is the way with many traditions.
The Maypole dance is an
important aspect of encouraging the return of fertility to the earth.
The pole itself is not
only phallic in symbolism but also is the connector of the three worlds.
Dancing the Maypole during
Beltane is magical experience as it is a conduit of energy,
connecting all three
worlds at a time when these gateways are more easily penetrable.
As people gaily dance
around and around the pole holding the brightly colored ribbons,
the energy it raises is
sent down into the earth's womb,
bringing about Her full
awakening and fruitfulness.
In Padstow, Cornwall,
Beltane morning a procession is led by the "obby oss"
a costumed horse figure,
in a large circular banded frock and mask.
The procession is full of
song, drums and accordions.
Professor Ronald Hutton of
Bristol University points out that
the first account of the
Padstow May Day 'Obby 'Oss revelries was written in 1803.
He offers evidence however
that, like English Morris Dancing, its origins lie in English medieval times.
This does not discount the
possibility that its roots lay in the foundation
of the fertility rites of
Beltane, a more politically correct transmutation of fertility acts.
There is also a Queen of
May.
She is said in many areas
to have worn a gold crown with a single,
gold leaf at its front, in
other areas her crown was made of fresh flowers.
She was typically chosen
at the start of the Beltane festival,
which in time past was
after sundown on the eve before Beltane day.
Many accounts mention both a May Queen and King being chosen,
whom would reign from
sundown the eve before the Beltane day to sunset on Beltane.
Among their duties would
be to announce the Beltane games and award the prizes to the victors.
The rudimentary base of
this practice can be drawn back to the roots of Beltane festivities,
the union of the Goddess
and Her Consort, the joining of earth and sun, the endowment of summer.
The Goddess has many
guises: Danu - The Great Mother, Blodeuwedd (the Flower Bride),
Isolt (Iseult, Isolde) and
many, many others. The consort can also take many forms
including the Green Man,
Cernunnos or Tristan.
As Beltane marks this
handfasting (wedding) of the Goddess and God,
it too marks the
reawakening of the earth's fertility in its fullest.
This is the union between
the Great Mother and her Young Consort,
this coupling brings new
life on earth. It is on a Spiritual level,
the unifying of the Divine
Masculine and the Divine Feminine to bring forth the third, consciousness.
On the physical, it is the
union of the Earth and Sun to bring about the fruitfulness of the growing
season.
It is customary that trial
unions, for a year and a day, occur at this time.
More or less these were
statements of intent between couples, which were not legally binding.
The trial marriages
(engagements) typically occurred between a couple before deciding
to take a further step
into a legally binding union.
It seems ancient wisdom
understood that one does not really know another
until they have lived with
them, and when you live together things change and we change, as well.
With this understanding
unions were entered upon, first as a test period, and then if desired,
a further commitment could
be taken. It through always knowing that it is only
through the choice of both
to remain, that the relationship exists favorably.
May, however, according to
old folklore is not a favorable time for
marriages in the legal and
permanent sense.
There is reference after
reference in the old books of this belief,
and according to my Irish
grandmother,
May is not the month to
marry, woe is to had by those who do.
I can understand the
premise of this folklore,
May is the Goddess and
God's handfasting month, all honor would be Hers and His.
Water is another important
association of Beltane, water is refreshing and rejuvenating,
it is also imperative to
life. It is said that if you bathe in the dew gathered before dawn on Beltane
morn,
your beauty will flourish
throughout the year. Those who are sprinkled with May dew are insured of health
and happiness. There are other folk customs such as drinking from the well
before
sunrise on Beltane Morn to
insure good health and fortune.
The central color of
Beltane is green.
Green is the color of
growth, abundance, plentiful harvest, abundant crops, fertility, and luck.
White is another color that
is customary; white brings the energies of cleansing, peace, spirituality,
and the power to dispel
negativity. Another color is red that brings along the qualities of energy,
strength, sex, vibrancy,
quickening, health, consummation and retention.
Sun energy, life force and
happiness are brought to Beltane by the color yellow.
Blues and purples are
Sagittarius energies: expansion,
Good Fortune, magic,
spiritual power,
Success, and pinks, Venus
energies.
Beltane is rich in vibrant
color, lighting the eyes and cheering the Spirit
as we leave the dreariness
of winter behind.
It is customary to bake a
colorful fruit and spiced filled bread for festivals in the Celtic lands,
traditionally this
festival bread is sweet dough made with sweetmeat and spices.
In Scotland they are the
bannock - Bonnach Bealtain - for Beltane,
in Wales - Bara Brith,
Ireland it is Barm Brack and in Brittany Morlaix Brioche.
For Beltane this bread was
made the eve before Beltane day,
it is said that the bread
should not allow it to come into contact with steel during preparation
(steel is harmful, deadly
to the faery folk).
Bannocks are actually
uncut scones originally cooked on a griddle.
Wheat does not grow well
in the Highlands, originally bannocks were made with oat or
barley flour made into
dough with little water and no leavening.
Traditionally, a portion
of the cake was burned or marked with ashes.
The recipient of the burnt
cake jumped over a small fire three times to purify and cleanse
him or herself of any ill
fortune.
Offerings of bannocks and
drink are traditionally left on doorsteps and roadways
for the Faeries as an
offering, in hope of faery blessings.
May is the month of
sensuality and sexuality revitalized,
the reawakening of the
earth and Her Children.
It is the time when we
reawaken to the vivid colors, vibrant scents, tingling summer breezes,
and the rapture of summer
after a long dormant winter.
It is a time of
extraordinary expression of earth, animal,
and person a time of great
enchantment and celebration.
The excitement and beauty
of Beltane cannot be better expressed
than through the gaiety
and joy of our children. There is not doubt "spring fever" hits at
Beltane,
and hits hard. Children
are full of unbridled energy charged up and ready to go!
Children always amplify
the seasonal energies and the thrill of their change;
they bring richness and
merriment wherever they go.
It is the child's
unrestrained expression of bliss and delight that is what Beltane is all about.
It is the sheer joy of
running through fields, picking flowers, rapturing in the sunlight,
delighting in the
fragrance of spring, dancing in the fresh dew covered grass.
Our children guide us
through the natural abandonment of our adult sensibilities and
show us how to take grand
pleasure, warmth and bliss from the gift of Beltane.
Blessed Beltane to you and yours!
Christina Aubin
Beltaine 2000
From http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/beltaine.html
The
Pagan Origins of May Day
Mayday was a rite of passage custom that marked an important seasonal
transition in the year.
Putting a maypole up
involved taking a growing tree from the wood,
and bringing it to the
village to mark the oncoming season of the summer.
Mayday used to be a period
of great sexual licence.
People would go off into
the woods to collect their trees and green boughs,
but once there, would
enter into all sorts of temporary sexual liaisons which society did not
normally accept.
Why isn't it like that now? It was tamed and redirected.
In the seventeenth
century, Mayday came under severe attack
by the puritans who banned
it by an act of Parliament in 1644.
In Philip Stubbe's
"Anatomy of Abuses", which was a puritan tract against all kinds of
merrymaking,
there is a section called
'Against May', where he actually tries to measure the degree of sexual license.
"Every parish town
and village assemble themselves together. Men and women and children,
old and young and go off,
some to the woods and groves, some to the hills and mountains,
where they spend the night
in pastimes. In the morning they return bringing with them birch-boughs
and trees to deck their
assemblies withal. I've heard it credibly reported by men of great gravity,
credibility and
reputation. That forty, three score, or a hundred youths, going to the woods
over night.
They have scarcely the
third part of them, returned home again undefiled."
The Puritans also objected to May Day and other festivals,
because of the way social
hierarchy was set aside, so that all were commonly involved,
from the highest to the
lowest. The Puritans found this offensive much preferring strict gradations in
society.
May day did return with
the restoration of Charles the second in 1660, but it didn't have the same
robust force.
It had the same old image,
but the elements of sexual licence and social reversal went underground.
Then in the nineteenth
century, the Victorians overlayed a much more moral tone on the festival,
emphasizing its innocence.
Instead of being a celebration of fertility,
it turned into a kind of
commemoration of Merri England. The girls taking part now wore white and held
posies.
What has this cleaning up done to the image of May Day today?
For the past sixty years
folklorists have been rediscovering the Pagan fertility tradition,
with its myths, rites and
sexual license. Some say this has over shadowed the way in which May
and other customs have
been rooted in an economic way of life. May garlands,
for example embodied the
coming of summer, but they also embodied the
knocking on doors around
the parish and asking for money.
At other times of the year
begging would have been an offence.
But if it was done at May
time with a garland, or collecting money for the Guy,
or wassailing at
Christmas, it would have a powerful legitimization.
Also the taking of the
tree for the maypole highlighted the rights of the people
to take wood freely for
fuel. This confirms the extensive medieval rights to wood usage,
including the taking of
wood, both growing timber for building and repairs and dead wood for fuel.
Why did the Labour
Movement choose May Day as International Labour Day?
It's more that May Day
chose the Labour Movement. Unlike Easter, Whitsun or Christmas,
May Day is the one
festival of the year for which there is no significant church service.
Because of this it has
always been a strong secular festival, particularly among
working people who in
previous centuries would take the day off to celebrate it as a holiday,
often clandestinely without the support of their employer. It was
a popular custom,
in the proper sense of the
word - a people's day –
so it was naturally
identified with the Labour and socialist movements and
by the twentieth century
it was firmly rooted as part of the socialist calendar.
It's only recently that
the state has recognized May Day as a bank holiday
for the first time since
it had royal support back in the Elizabethan court,
and there's been a big
battle over this May Day which was seized upon by the Right
as something foreign and
left-wing. But this entirely misses the continuity of its roots in our cultural
tradition.
http://www.planet.net.au/innovations/may96/mayday.html
This text was taken
from a site created and maintained by johnj@sysx.apana.org.au
Adapted from the BBC TV Series "About Time" by John Berger and
others.
Our modern celebration of
Mayday as a working class holiday evolved from
the struggle for the eight
hour day in 1886.
May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the United States and Canada
for an eight hour day
called by the Knights of
Labour. In Chicago police attacked striking workers killing six.
The next day at a
demonstration in Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality
a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them.
The police arrested eight
anarchist trade unionists claiming they threw the bombs.
To this day the subject is
still one of controversy. The question remains whether the bomb
was thrown by the workers
at the police or whether one of the police's own agent provocateurs
dropped it in their haste
to retreat from charging workers.
In what was to become one
of the most infamous show trials in America in the 19th century,
but certainly not to be
the last of such trials against radical workers,
the State of Illinois
tried the anarchist workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb
throwers. Whether the anarchist workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant.
They were agitators,
fomenting revolution and stirring up the working class,
and they had to be taught
a lesson.
Albert Parsons, August
Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and
executed by the State of
Illinois.
In Paris in 1889 the
International Working Men's Association (the First International)
declared May 1st an
international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs.
The red flag became the
symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers
rights.
Mayday, which had been
banned for being a holiday of the common people,
had been reclaimed once
again for the common people.
Originally published Mayday 1995, Edmonton
District Labour Council Newsletter and Labour News.