Welcome to my new series, [Insert Pagan Holiday] In A Week! This week, I'll be focusing on Beltane, a holiday celebrated on 1 May that focuses on Mother Earth's fertility as the wheel turns to Spring. Hopefully by the end, you'll be well-versed in Beltane history, lore, spellwork, and more!
The word Beltane is derived from the Old Irish Beltain, the Gaelic name for the festival that takes place the first day of May. It was originally a festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and has spread over different areas of the world, especially in light of recent Celtic revivals. The Celts of old honored the fertility of the gods with gifts and offerings (sometimes even sacrificing an animal or human), while the Irish lit the fires of Tara each year at Beltane, which supplied fire for every other bonfire in the area.
There is a lot of history and are several rites that celebrate Beltane, but for the sake of brevity, I'll be discussing the traditions celebrated by modern-day Wiccans and Pagans. According to some Wiccan traditions, Beltane is when the May Queen Flora and the Queen of Winter duke it out in a battle for who will reign over the season. Oddly, this goddess is one and the same: As spring becomes summer and the wheel of the year turns, she goes from Maiden (of fertility, bounty, and hearth) to Mother (of blossoming and abundance) to Crone (of dark skies, winter storms, and the end of the cycle of life), only to be revived as the sun returns.
Despite its dissemination in different areas of the world, Beltane still maintains several of its components, the most recognizable being bonfires and the Maypole.
Bonfires are typically made with the wood of nine magickal woods associated with the season (oak, apple, hawthorn, birch, elder, ash, blackthorn, grape vine, mountain ash (rowan), holly, willow, cedar, yew, and hemlock), and they mark a time of purification and transition, the welcoming of the sun after what are typically long, cold, harsh winters. Young women are encouraged to jump over them for fertility, and jumping over the dying embers of a Beltane fire is said to bring good fortune in the summer.
Maypoles are tall poles decorated with flowers and hanging ribbons, which are woven as dancers, who grasp the ends of the ribbons in their hands, circle around the pole. As they weave in and out of each other, the ribbons eventually knot up, creating intricate patterns of colorful stripes by the end. The pole represents the phallus of the god, and a wreath perched at the top of the pole represents the vagina of the goddess. It's easy to see why Beltane is often referred to as the "sexy holiday"!
Many modern Pagans also celebrate this time of fertility and abundance by planting and sowing seeds, anticipating the buds and flowers of early May as the sun renews and the rain nourishes. Certain trees are associated with Beltane, which we'll cover at a later date along with other Beltane associations.
[...] A History of Beltane [...]
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