Beltane

Merry meet all.

Beltane, around the1st May, is a time of purification, transition and fertility. Also known as Beltain, Bealtaine, Beltine, May Day, Cetsamhain ('first Samhain'), Walpurgis Night (Beltane Eve), Celtic 'Flower Festival’. It is traditionally a fire festival, when fires were lit on hills and mountains and any sacred grounds. From these fires all other, hearth fires were lit, signifying the changing of the seasons. Cattle and other livestock were driven between two fires to purify them and to shake of any bad or negative energy, to promote health and fertility. For the same reasons, people would jump the Beltane fires and even make a wish as they did.

At this sabbat we celebrate the transition of the God from youth into a man and his love, courtship and marriage to the Goddess. The Goddess becomes pregnant and fertility is returned to the land. Blodeuwedd is associated with Beltane, having been made out of spring flowers as a consort for Llew, and traditionally a May King and Queen are chosen to represent the Goddess and God on May day.