Celtic World > Bealtaine

Celtic Wheel of the Year: Bealtaine

Notes can be found in the Endnotes section.
Also see the Celtic World Site Bibliography.

Other names: Kala-Hanv (Breton), Cala Me (Cornish), Giamonia (Gaulish), (16) Belltaine, Boaldyn (Manx), Cétshamain (Modern Irish), Bealtuinn (Scottish-Gaelic), Cyntefin, Dydd Calan Mai, Calan Mai (Welsh). Also Beltane (Wiccan)

Beltaine, one of the two main Celtic fire festivals, is a fertility celebration which takes place on April 30. Also known as May Eve (likewise May 1 is referred to as May Day), this festival marks the beginning of Summer and the growing season. In Scotland, where Spring and Summer tend to begin later in the year, this festival was often celebrated on May 15. On this day, all hearth-fires were extinguished to be rekindled from the communal bonfire.

The word Beltaine literally means "bright or goodly fire,"(17) or possibly "fire of Bel" and refers to the bonfires lit to coax the Sun's warmth into the Earth and renew it. These bonfires were referred to as tein-eigin, or "need fire" in Scotland. At this time, livestock were taken to the upper pastures, called a buaile (booley) or sheiling. It's possible that this festival was associated with the vernation of the Celtic god known variously as Bel, Belenos, Belinos or Belenus. Bel, the Continental god of light, fire and healing is depicted as 'Apollo Belenus' (Brilliant Apollo) at a shrine at Sainte-Sabine in Burgundy.(18)

In Irish mythology, the great undertakings of the Tuatha Dé Danann(19) and the Milesians(20) – the original supernatural inhabitants of Ireland and their human conquerors, respectively – began at Beltaine. The Milesians were led by Amairgen(21), son of Mil, in folklore reputed to be the first Druid. Some believe that the mythological king, Beli Mawr, in the Welsh story of Lludd and Llefelys in The Mabinogion, is a folk memory of this god.(22) Some stories tell of a Summer god being released from captivity (an echo of the freeing of the child Mabon from the Mabinogion tale Culhwch and Olwen), or the Summer maiden wooed away from her Earth-giant father.

The Germanic counterpart of this day was Walpurgisnacht. Like Brigid, the Church changed this goddess into a saint(23) and attached a similar legend to her origin. The custom of the May-tree or May-pole fertility dance derived from Germanic traditions surrounding her feast, not Celtic traditions. A phallic pole was made usually from a Yule tree, its branches stripped and then planted into the Earth. Red and white ribbons were attached to its top.

Other Customs

A Celtic as well as Germanic tradition is that of the King & Queen of May. James Frazier in The Golden Bough explains that the May couple, going by various names and clad in green leaves or flowers, represented the "anthropomorphic spirit of vegetation." One telling explains that the Queen would ride in on a white horse and the King on a black one. The woman on a white horse echoes the story of Niamh of the Golden Hair(24) coming to take Oissin(25) away to the Land of Promise upon a white steed.
In many places, people would rise before the Sun and watch its ascent from a hilltop, bathing in it's light which was thought to be healing. Sometimes, youths would journey to the hilltop from the woods after sexual merry-making the previous night.(26) Puritanical writer Phillip Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses (1583) commented that "[A]gainst May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the young men and maides, olde men and wives, run gadding over night to the woods, groves, hils, and mountains where they spend all the night in plesant pastimes. . ." (27)
Another, similar rite that took place at Beltane is called the "bringing the May." Frazier cites examples of youths would go out into the fields and collect flowers. They would often spend the night in the wood, which resulted in many "greenwood marriages," or "handfastings."(28) In the village, they would stop at each home and exchange the flowers for food and drink. Thus, they became the harbingers of the renewal of the Earth. This rite also represented the need of the communal tribe or clan to share their belongings, sustaining the entire population as a result.
Frazier also mentions that in Cornwall on May Eve people would tear branches from hawthorn and sycamore trees and decorate the outside of their homes. The hawthorn, or whitethorn, is the tree of hope, pleasure and protection.
Another custom would be to jump over the fire. Young people jumped the fire for luck in finding a spouse, sojourners jumped the fire to ensure a safe journey, and pregnant women jumped the fire to assure an easy delivery.