Beltane is a major cross quarter festival which follows the Spring Equinox. It was celebrated by the Ancient Celts as tile marriage of the Earth and the Sun, the divine moment when fertility sweeps across the land and brings fruits and flowers and warm weather. Though Beltane, also known as May Day, Walburgisdaeg, Rudemas, Rowan Day, and in Elvish LOTESSE,(in blossom) it was probably celebrated in ancient times by many peoples. Beltane is a Spring Sabbat, and a Pagan High Holiday. It is dedicated to the joyous and jubilant celebration of the Goddess and the fertility which regenerates the Earth. The Goddess in her nymph phase, and the Great Horned God (Green Man) in his second (or mature phase) reunite and the energy of their mating washes over the Earth and all its inhabitants reawakening and revitalizing all of life. The celebrations at this time of year are exhilarating, lusty and robust, with the emphasis on fertility.

 To the Celts, as to all pastoral peoples, the year had two seasons: the beginning of Summer, and the beginning of Winter. Subtler divisions were more agricultural than pastoral. Some of the pronunciations of the word vary. Beltane corresponds to the modern Irish Gaelic word Bealtaine (pronounced 'b'yol tinnuh', rhyming with winner, the name of May. In Scotland, the Gaelic word Bealtuinn pronounced b'yal-ten, the n pronounced like the n in onion, meaning May Day.

 The original meaning is Belfire from a pre-Celtic God known  by  various  names  as Bel, Beli, Bdlor, etc. Some people say that Bel is the British-Celtic equivalent of Gaulish-Celtic Cernunnos, but that is questionable.  Stewart and Janet Farrar in their book Eight Sabbats discussed this at length. Cernunnos is usually identified  with the Horned-God Hunter, the God of fertility, and the

God of the forests, Lord of animals. He is also the lover of  the Great Goddess.  He is the most male aspect  of  the God symbol. Cernunnos is more likely to correspond to the Greek  God  Pan...goat feet, horns, etc.  Bel was called the Bright  One; God of fire and light. Though Bel has sun like  qualities, he was more of a symbol than a God, as the Celtic name for Sun is a feminine noun, 'grian'.  Mor is also  a personalized Irish name for the Sun, as the greeting  Mor'dhuit..." May the sun bless you". To some cultures the  Sun was a God (in Greece; Apollo, and in Egypt;  Ra). In  other cultures the sun was a Goddess, i.e. Nut; the Egyptian Goddess of the Sun and the Stars. Though Bel, Lugh, Llew had solar qualities, there is evidence in a Scottish-Gaelic folk prayer that the Sun was spoken of as a "happy mother of the stars", rising like a young queen in flower." (see Kenneth Jackson's Celtic Miscellany, item 34.)

 In Frazier's Golden Bough, he points out evidence that the Celtic Ritual-Calendar was pastoral rather than 'solar' which would be agricultural.  In any case, both Cernunnos and Bel are male aspects, impregnators of the Great Goddess. These two aspects dominate the, themes of Beltane folklore; fertility and fire.

 Bel-fires were lit on the hilltops to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world. Miraculous

 virtues were thought to be a part of these fires. Robert  Graves, in the White Goddess, says that the fire was kindled  by drilling an oak-plank, but only in the kindling of the Beltane needfire to which miraculous virtue was associated,

 In ancient Ireland the High King was always the first to light the Bel-fire on Tara Hill. Ireland and Brittany are to be regarded as two poses in the modern Celtic world, but it is believed by Celtic mystics to be much more than this; that they are two of its psychic centers, with Tara and Carnac as two respective points of focus from which the Celtic influence of each country radiates. It was on the Hill of Tara that the old and new religions did battle.  The control of Tara as a psychic center meant the physical control of all Ireland. Tara was the igniting point for the community's regenerative Bel-fire. St. Patrick showed a deep understanding of  this  when he lit a fire on Slane Hill, 10 miles from Tara, before, the High King lit his; he could not have made a more dramatic claim to usurping the spiritual leadership over the whole Island.

 A feature of the Be/tare fire festival is jumping over the fire. In Pagan symbolism today, the custom is still observed at Beltane. Jumping over the Bel-fire is said to bring lovers good luck and fertility, etc. Starhawk writes a ritual in which her group leaves something unpleasant in the flames, but I think this is inappropriate at Beltane.

 In the Mabinogian many, of the myths center around this festival. The color green is emphasized in many of the stories. This is the color worn by nearly all of the faerie folk of Britain and Ireland. In some ancient mystery religions, the initiate was often clothed in green robes after coming out of his trance, to symbolize his own spiritual resurrection and rebirth. Beltane represented all over the British Isles the waking of the Earth from Her winter sleep, and the renewal of warmth and vegetation.

 This is the meaning of our May Pole, now rarely seen  except in some elementary school May Days, though Shakespeare tells us that in his time the festival was so eagerly anticipated that no one could sleep upon its eve!

 At midnight, the people rose, and going to the, nearest woods, tore down branches of trees, with which the sun, when He rose, would find doors and windows decked for him. They spent the day in dancing around the May-Pole, with rude rustic mirth, man joining with nature to celebrate the coming of summer!

 Some taboos were lifted at Beltane. The ban on cutting the Hawthorne tree was lifted, when sprigs of it could he cut to celebrate the Goddess festival. Robert Graves (The White Goddess) says that the hawthorn also has orgiastic use, corresponding to the Goddess Flora. For many men it has a scent of the female sex organ. The Turks use hawthorn flowering branch as an erotic symbol.

 Another taboo lifted on May Eve was the British custom of hunting the hare. The hare, as well as being a moon animal has a fine reputation for randy-ness and fertility, The same is true of the goat. Both of these animals figure symbolically as totems for Beltane.

In early times even the church lifted taboos, the marriage vows that the Christian church imposed upon the people were relaxed for this festival. They knew that during this rowdy festival the populist could hardly be expected to remain monogynous.  Beltane for the community was infinitely sexual! 

 From the Maypole, gown of green, to staying out all night to watch the May Sun rise....Beltane is and was the season of venereal adoration. (Puritans forbid the Maypole dance.) Flowers and garlands are traditional and Pagans wear them today in their Spring rites.

 In Eight Sabbats, the Oak King symbolically dies out of love for the Goddess, but is revived in the ritual, so that their love and the fertility of the land may continue. (The oak tree is sacred in the waxing year). He is revived by the Priestess's of the coven when they rekindle the balefire.