Beltane, or May Day, is one of the Great Sabbats of the Wiccan calendar. Of the four Great Sabbats, Beltane is one of the most important, second only to Samhain (Halloween). Beltane is chronologically opposite of Samhain, splitting the year evenly. Most Wiccans celebrate the holiday on May 1st, however by Celtic reckoning, the actual celebration begins on sundown of April 30, because the Celts always figured their days from sundown to sundown. Like many covens around the country, we find that our lives are often too busy, and one or more of us will be unable to meet together on that actual first of May (we affectionately call this phenomenon 'Pagan Standard Time'). In this case, we hearken to Mike Nichols who wrote:
"By the way, due to various calendrical changes down through the centuries, the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as its astrological date. This date, like all astronomically determined dates, may vary by a day or two depending on the year. However, it may be calculated easily enough by determining the date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus (usually around May 5th). British Witches often refer to this date as Old Beltane, and folklorists call it Beltane O.S. ('Old Style'). Some Covens prefer to celebrate on the old date and, at the very least, it gives one options. If a Coven is operating on 'Pagan Standard Time' and misses May 1st altogether, it can still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as it's before May 5th. This may also be a consideration for Covens that need to organize activities around the week-end."
Naturally it's always better to celebrate on the actual day, but sometimes one simply cannot help circumstances, unlike our ancestors who's entire village planned their lives around the ancient holidays.
The word 'Beltane' is derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine' or the Scottish Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god Baal. Bonfires were often lit for this holiday, and leaping the fire was a custom thought to encourage the crops to grow as high as the leaper could leap the fire. These fires, also called 'need-fires' were thought to have healing properties, thus we have the tradition of 'sky-clad' (naked) witches leaping the fire to ensure protection. Other May Day customs include walking around one's property ('beating the bounds'), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, enacting the 'Robin Hood' story, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood traditions of Beltane is the custom of free sexuality on this night. For a long time after the Christian form of marriage (and it's strict rules of sexual monogomy) had replaced the older customs of handfasting, those strict rules of monogomy were relaxed for the May Eave rites. Called 'greenwood marriages', in which young men and women who spent the night in the forest and brought back boughs of flowers and garlands to decorate the village in the morning, were especially condemned by the Puritans. Many a young woman would come back pregnant from these romps in the woods, and such children were referred to as 'merry be-got'.
These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling:
Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!
And Lerner and Lowe:
It's May! It's May!
The lusty month of May!...
Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,
Ev'ryone breaks.
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes!
The lusty month of May!
The maypole is, of course, one of the great symbols of May Day. It is a part of that fertility symbolism that is so much a part of this holiday. It is most often refered to as a phallic symbol, joined with the Goddess in holy sexuality. These days there are many people who whose sexual path makes them uncomfortable with this imagery, and because of this they choose not to celebrate the maypole. This is too bad, since the maypole is a powerful and moving experience, and is not limited by personal sexuality choices... for instance, one could view the pole as the Tree of Life instead of a phallic symbol. To join ourselves by ribbons of the colors representing different aspects of life to this sacred Tree, one can work just as powerful magick as the other person who views the pole as the more sexual phallic symbol.
The aspect of Goddess represented at Beltane is the Maiden, called Maya, Maia, May or Mai in Northern Europe, Flora in Rome, or Kore in Greece. The God is the grown Son, the Lover, the Green Man. This is the time the Maiden and Lover meet and perform the Great Rite (sacred sexual union) in harmony with the fertile energies of the season. This is the beginning of Summer, of the growing season. Thus what is done on the spiritual plane is echoed on the physical plane.
Our Lady of the Prairie coven celebrates May Day with many of the traditional aspects practiced throughout history. We light a baelfire; sometimes outside, sometimes inside depending on weather. When inside, we light the fire inside a cauldron, which is far safer! We always have a maypole, and have come up with several ways to raise the pole indoors. However, those of us with lovers have chosen to remain monogomous, as these days it is far safer. Instead of the unabashed sexuality of our ancestors, we work on exploring our sensuality. We often have what we call a 'Sensuality Workshop', which can include massages, brushing each other's hair, doing temporary body art and mehndi, dancing or anything else we enjoy doing together as sacred play. This is a celebratory holiday, and as such we always try to do what is most enjoyable to us as a group.
There are many ways to celebrate Beltane yourself, such as:
Beltane
Litha
Lughnassad
Samhain
Yule
Imbolc
Excerpts from OLP's Book of ShadowsContact Our Lady of the Prairie by EMAIL!
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Last modified March 16, 2002