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Referred to by some as 'the Feast of Pan', Beltane (also called May Day) is one
of the most well known Sabbats. It is celebrated around May 1st. Beltane is
opposite of Samhain on the Wheel of the Year and, like Samhain, marks a time when the veil between the worlds is thinning. Beltane was originally a
Celtic or Druidic festival of fire, celebrating the union of the Goddess and the
Horned God, and fertility in all things.
The word Beltane means bel-fire (or bale-fire), which was the fire of the Celtic
God Bel. Bel-fires were lit on hilltops to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world. On the eve of Beltane the Celts build two large fires, created from the nine sacred woods. They were lit in honor of the beginning of summer and the herds were ritually driven between them, to purify and protect them. The fires celebrate the return of fruitfulness to the earth.
The Nine Sacred Woods Used to Kindle the Beltane are Birch, Oak, Rowan, Willow, Hawthorn, Hazel, Apple, Vine,
and Fir.
Nine woods in the Cauldron go, burn them fast and burn them slow.
Birch wood in the fire goes to represent what the Lady knows.
Oak in the forest, towers with might in the fire it brings the God's insight.
Rowan is a tree of power causing life and magick to flower.
Willows at the waterside stand ready to help us to the Summerland.
Hawthorn is burned to purify and to draw faerie to your eye.
Hazel-the tree of wisdom and learning-adds its strength to the bright fire
burning.
White are the flowers of Apple tree that brings us fruits of fertility.
Grapes grow upon the vine giving us both joy and wine.
Fir does mark the evergreen to represent immortality seen.
But - Elder is the Lady's tree burn it not or cursed you'll be.
Perhaps the best known tradition of Beltane is the custom of free sexuality on this night. When the Christian form of marriage (and
its strict rules of sexual
monogamy) replaced the older custom of handfasting, those strict rules were relaxed for the May
Eve 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.
Many young women came back pregnant from these romps in the woods, and their children were referred to as 'merry be-got'.
Possibly the most well known Beltane custom is that of the Maypole, made of
great trees driven into the earth, which is said to represent the world axis
or the Tree of Life. The Maypole used to be made from a pine tree from which all but the uppermost branches had been removed. Red and white ribbons were attached to the top (white for the Goddess and red for the God). The men would grasp the red ribbons and the women the white ones and together they would dance, weaving the
symbols of male and female together in union.
In
today's feminist witchcraft traditions which honor women's mysteries
within the Turning of the Wheel, Beltane marks a young woman's first
menses, a right of passage into adulthood.
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