Beltane was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals. It marked the beginning of summer season, when livestock would be driven out to the summer pastures It was also a spring time festival of optimism and fertility.
Imagine this: Ireland, doors, windows, byres and livestock decorated with yellow May flowers, a feast with offerings to deities, people driving out their cattle to the summer pastures and walking around bonfires, sometimes leaping over them.
And a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rush lights.
This is what Beltane looked like in early Irish culture.
Rituals & Symbols
The main ritual was "the symbolic use of fire", probably where the idea that Beltane is a "festival of fire" came to be. Fire, was believed to have a great protective power to shield the livestock, crops, dairy products and people from , both natural and supernatural harm. According to the early medieval texts "Sanas Cormaic" and "Tochmarc Emire" druids would make two fires with incantations and drive the cattle between them in order to protect them from disease. All hearth fires and candles would be doused before the bonfire was lit, and they were to be rekindled from it. Sometimes the cattle would be made to leap over flames or embers OR go around the fire. The people themselves would do likewise. When the bonfire was out people would daub themselves with its' ashes and sprinkle it over their crops and livestock. Torches from the bonfire would be taken home and used to re-light the hearth.
According to one theory the bonfires were meant to mimic the Sun and to ensure a needful supply of sunshine. According to another they were meant to destroy harmful influences.
Food was also made at the bonfire and it is said that they would sacrifice a lamb. In other regions they would make a caudle made from eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk and then some of it was poured on the ground as a form of an offering. Everyone would take an oatcake "Bannock" and offer parts of it to the spirits to protect their livestock AND a bit was offered to the animals that might harm the livestock. Afterwards they would drink the caudle.
Another ritual involving the oatmeal cake invloves a symbolic "human sacrifice". The cake would be cut into pieces and one of them would be marked with charcoal, then everyone would take a piece while blindfolded and whoever got the piece with the charcoal on it would become the "sacrifice". This could mean they would have to leap through the fire three times or according to others - pretend throw in the fire, where others would speak of the person as if dead for a while after that.
Yellow (because the color evoked fire) flowers were placed at doorways and windows, sometimes loose and sometimes made into bouquets, garlands or fastened to crosses, cows and equipment for milking and butter making.
Another custom was the decorating of a May Bush or May Tree. It is believed to be associated with "aos si" (basically fae) and a relic of tree worship. It was most certainly a fertility rite meant to symbolize the union of the masculine and feminine. The May Bush was typically a small tree or branch decorated with bright flowers, ribbons, painted shells etc. The tree would be decorated either where it stood, or branches would be decorated and taken into a house or outside. In some places it was customary to dance around the May Bush and at the end of the festivities it may be burnt into the bonfire.
Holly wells were visited as another ritual of Beltane. Visitors would pray for health, while moving from east to west around the well, then leave offerings. The first water drawn from the well on Beltane was seen as especially potent, as the Beltane morning dew. At dawn maidens would wash their faces with the dew or put it in jars, left in sunlight and then filtered. The dew was believed to increase sexual attractiveness, skin health and youthfulness.
People would also take steps to appease the Fae by leaving food, pouring milk at the doorsteps or pouring a small amount of blood from cattle into the earth while praying.
Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.
By the 20th century it is said celebrations had largely died out, but then Celtic Neopagans and Wiccans took it in as a religious holiday.
To be continued...
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