“Hooray! Hooray! It’s First of May! Outdoor f’king starts today!” - unknown
The start of May has been a celebration of life, fertility and, yes, sex, for a very long time. The Romans held festivals at this time for the goddesses Flora (Goddess of Flowers) and Bona Dea (the mysterious “Good Goddess” of fertility, described by some sources as the wife/daughter/sister of the forest god Faunus). It was the time for Walpurgis Night among the Germanic peoples of Europe, and of course the Celts chose what we now call May 1st for the fire festival from which the modern Pagan sabbat takes its name:
Beltane.
Read on . . .
The History
The name Beltane means, depending on who you ask, “Fires of Bel” (referring to the proto-Celtic sun god Bel/Belenus/Belor), “Brilliant Fire”, or simply “Bright”. It celebrated the return of the sun, fertility, and – perhaps more importantly to the ancient Celts - the return of their cattle to summer pastures. One of the four major “fire festivals” (along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh), Beltane marked the beginning of Summer.
Like the Jewish day, the Celtic day began at sundown. Festivities for Beltane actually began the evening before May 1st, with the lighting of great bonfires on hilltops, fueled by sacred woods. The cattle, just released from Winter barns, would be driven between two fires to bless and purify them. Pregnant women are said to have passed between the fires to ensure a healthy child, and others did so for purification or luck. People would jump the bonfires as well, believing that provided the same benefits as running between them (though one would hope it gave a double dose, or something). There was feasting, decorating the homes of one’s beloved with flowers and hawthorn branches (a tree of hope and life) and no small amount of Pagan-y sex (young men and women, celebrating Summer, out gathering flowers and sacred branches in the forest all night, yada, yada, yada . . . ).
Like Samhain, Beltane was considered a period of "no time" -- a point of transition, it was considered a night when the walls between this world and the others became thin. At Samhain, that meant possibly encountering the Dead. At Beltane, it meant maybe seeing the Faeries.
Forget the popular images. Classically speaking, "faery" referred to a range of beings, rarely if ever depicted with insect wings, who came in big and small, pretty and hideous, helpful and malicious. Think less "Tinkerbell" than the nature spirits from Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Talking about faery lore would be its own diary and then some. Suffice to say that how to see, appease, and/or guard against "the Fay" was an integral part of Celtic folklore about Beltane.
The Sabbat
Most Pagan traditions hold some cosmology about the Wheel of the Year - the movement of the world through its seasons, usually expressed as a story about the Gods and Goddesses. There are variations – most notably the Oak King/Holly King battle, but the most common version has a God and Goddess, who progress through birth, marriage and death through the year.
In that version, Beltane is a marriage. The God - who, associated with the Sun, is reborn at the Winter Solstice (or Feb. 2nd, at Imbolc, in some traditions) - courts and weds the maiden Goddess, impregnating her with the child that will become the reborn God itself, the following year. Like all its precursers, the Neo-Pagan Beltane is a celebration of Summer, life, love, fertility, sex and abundance.
The modern Pagan sabbat may takes its name from the Celts, but – eclecticism being the bread and butter of Neo-Paganism – tends to draw from all over. Like I said, the start of May has a long history of festivals of life, fertility, growth and hope, and the bits and pieces of those traditions are ready fodder for modern Beltane celebrations.
The Romans celebrated the Floralia with floral wreaths and dancing (and, being Romans, more Pagan-y sex). Walpurgis Night spread throughout the lands of the Germanic tribes and up into the Northlands, sharing bonfires with Beltane, but also adding the Maypole, straw dolls, and the notion of a "May King and Queen". And in more recent history, Americans used to mark May Day by delivering "May baskets" - small baskets of sweets and flowers, left on the stoops of friends and neighbors. Any or all of these traditions can be part of a modern Beltane celebration.
Flowers, of course, make a great decoration for a Beltane altar, as do the fruits of the recent Spring. Green is an obvious color for the altar (and clothing), and any symbols of fertility (rabbits, eggs, etc) are good to add in.
As a major sabbat, my coven observes Beltane as a feast (i.e., a potluck). Seasonal recipes are always good, and any Google search of "Beltane" and "recipes" will give you options. Case in point.
Beltane is a time for honoring and blessing plants and animals, for celebrating growth and abundance and asking for more of the same. Have a garden? Plan on having one? Beltane is a time to bless it. Ditto if you happen to have actual livestock (if you to do the bonfire thing, please set the fires well apart. No good comes from scaring your livestock, let alone singeing the poor things).
It is also, not surprisingly, a time for magickal work involving new beginnings, fertility, love and marriage. And for non-magickal work involving them, for that matter.
Honoring its Celtic history, Beltane traditionally involves a bonfire (even if you don't have cattle), preferably fed with nine sacred woods. The lore gives conflicting lists, but they're usually some combination of the following:
Oak, Apple, Hawthorn, Birch, Elder, Ash, Blackthorn, Grape Vine, Mountain Ash (Rowan), Holly, Willow, Cedar, Yew, Hemlock
My favorite traditional list is this one:
Birch for the Goddess, Oak for the God, Hazel for wisdom, Rowan for life, Willow for death, Fir for rebirth, Apple for love, Hawthorne for purity, Vine for joy
Of course, depending on where you live, some or all of these woods can be hard to come by. There are web sites that sell "Beltane bundles" containing sacred woods, and if that works for you, there's nothing wrong with it. For me, I always prefer collecting the living wood myself - and in Florida, that means substitutions.
It's not hard to find stand-ins. It just takes a bit of research to find local trees that have the right associations (or right associations to you) to work. Remember - ritual elements are not a scavenger hunt, and not some mythic quest. You don't need the left eye of a sleeping Peruvian tree frog for your ritual to have meaning and power. You just need symbols that work for you and help you attune to the sabbat and its meaning.
In my case, my substitute list looks like this:
Oak for the God, Willow for the Goddess, Cypress for death, Fir (kept from my Yule/Christmas tree) for rebirth, Holly for magick, Orange for love, Maple for wisdom, Red Cedar for purification, Grape Vine (Muscadine) for Joy
Always practice fire safety - and that includes not jumping a fire you're not sure you can clear. Explaining third degree burns on your tuckus in the ER is not a good way to spend Beltane.
Of course, observing Beltane can also be as simple as sitting in a garden and thinking about the flowers, new life, and the world rising into the bounty of Summer. What matters most is that you reflect on what the day means - how its message of new life, love, fertility and joy applies to you and your daily life. Whether that's simply by jotting down some notes on a garden meditation, or creating a whole essay on Beltane and life for a formal ritual, the message is the same - Summer has returned. The world is full of life, joy, and bounty. Flowers bloom, the hives fill with honey, the trees fill with fruit. After every Winter - literal and otherwise - life always returns, thrives and provides.
Blessed Be.