Everything about Beltane totally explained
Beltane is the anglicized spelling of
Bealtaine or
Bealltainn the
Gaelic names for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.
In
Irish Gaelic the month is known as
Mí Bealtaine or
Bealtaine and the festival as
Lá Bealtaine ('day of Bealtaine' or, '
May Day'). In
Scottish Gaelic the month is known as either
(An) Cèitean or
a' Mhàigh and the festival is known as
Latha Bealltainn or simply
Bealltainn. The feast was also known as
Céad Shamhain or
Cétshamhainin a term also found in Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. The common term for May in Socttish Gaelic
An Cèitean derives from
Céad Shamhain. It is also found in Irish as
Céadamh(ain) while
Dia Céadamhan is May Day and
Mí Céadamhan is May.
As an ancient
Gaelic festival, Bealtaine was celebrated in
Ireland,
Scotland and the
Isle of Man. There were similar festivals held at the same time in the other
Celtic countries of
Wales,
Brittany and
Cornwall. Bealtaine and
Samhain were the leading terminal dates of the civil year in Ireland though the latter festival was the most important. The festival survives in folkloric practices in the
Celtic Nations and the
diaspora, and has experienced a degree of revival in recent decades.
Overview
For the
Celts, Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral
summer season when the herds of livestock were driven out to the summer pastures and mountain grazing lands. Due to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar,
Bealltainn in Scotland was commonly celebrated on the 15th of May while in Ireland Sean Bhealtain / "Old May" began about the night of the 11th of May. The lighting of bonfires on Oidhche Bhealtaine ('the eve of Bealtaine') on mountains and hills of ritual and political significance was one of the main activities of the festival. In modern
Scottish Gaelic,
Latha Buidhe Bealtuinn ('the yellow day of Bealltain') is used to describe the first day of May. This term
Lá Buidhe Bealtaine is also used in Irish and is translated as 'Bright May Day'. In Ireland it's referred to in a common folk tale as
Luan Lae Bealtaine; the first day of the week (Monday/
Luan) is added to emphasise the first day of summer.
In ancient Ireland the main Bealtaine fire was held on the central hill of
Uisneach 'the navel of Ireland', one of the ritual centres of the country, which is located in what is now
County Westmeath. In Ireland the lighting of bonfires on
Oidhche Bhealtaine seems only to have survived to the present day in
County Limerick, especially in
Limerick itself, as their yearly bonfire night, though some cultural groups have expressed an interest in reviving the custom at Uisneach and perhaps at the
Hill of Tara.
The lighting of a community Bealtaine fire from which individual hearth fires are then relit is also observed in modern times in some parts of the Celtic diaspora and by some
Neopagan groups, though in the majority of these cases this practice is a cultural revival rather than an unbroken survival of the ancient tradition.
Another common aspect of the festival which survived up until the early 20th century in Ireland was the hanging of May Boughs on the doors and windows of houses and the erection of May Bushes in farmyards, which usually consisted either of a branch of
rowan/
caorthann (mountain ash) or more commonly
whitethorn/
sceach geal (hawthorn) which is in bloom at the time and is commonly called the 'May Bush' or just 'May' in
Hiberno-English.
Furze/
aiteann was also used for the May Boughs, May Bushes and as fuel for the bonfire. The practice of decorating the May Bush or
Dos Bhealtaine with flowers, ribbons, garlands and colored egg shells has survived to some extent among the diaspora as well, most notably in Newfoundland, and in some
Easter traditions observed on the
East Coast of the United States.
Placenames in Ireland which contain remnants of the word 'Bealtaine' include a number of places called 'Beltany' - indicating places where Bealtaine festivities were once held. There are two 'Beltany's in
County Donegal, one near
Raphoe and the other in the parish of Tulloghobegly. Two others are lcoated in
County Tyrone, one near
Clogher and the other in the parish of Cappagh. In the parish of Kilmore,
County Armagh, there's a place called Tamnaghvelton/
Tamhnach Bhealtaine ('field of the Bealtaine festivities'). Lisbalting/
Lios Bealtaine ('fort or enclosure of Bealtaine') is located in Kilcash Parish, County Tipperary. Glasheennabaultina ('the Bealtaine stream') is the name of a stream joining the River Galey near Athea,
County Limerick.
Origins
In
Irish mythology, the beginning of the
summer season for the
Tuatha Dé Danann and the
Milesians started at Bealtaine. Great bonfires would mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with ritual acts to protect the people from any harm by
Otherworldly spirits, such as the
Aos Sí. Like the festival of
Samhain, opposite Beltane on October 31st, Beltane was also a time when the Otherworld was seen as particularly close at hand.
Early Gaelic sources from around the 10th century state that the
druids of the community would create a
need-fire on top of a hill on this day and drive the village's cattle through the fires to purify them and bring luck (
Eadar dà theine Bhealltainn in
Scottish Gaelic, 'Between two fires of Beltane'). This term is also found in Irish and is used as a turn of phrase to describe a situation which is difficult to escape from. In Scotland, boughs of
juniper were sometimes thrown on the fires to add an additional element of purification and blessing to the smoke. People would also pass between the two fires to purify themselves. This was echoed throughout history after
Christianization, with lay people instead of Druid priests creating the need-fire. The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today.
Beltane as described in this article is a specifically
Gaelic holiday. Other Celtic cultures, such as the
Welsh,
Bretons, and
Cornish, don't celebrate Beltane, per se. However, they celebrated or celebrate festivals similar to it at the same time of year. In
Wales, the day is known as
Calan Mai, and the
Gaulish name for the day is
Belotenia.
Dwelly wrote:
Etymology
The word
Beltane derives directly from the
Old Irish Beltain, which later evolved into the
Modern Irish Bealtaine (pr. 'byel-tana'). In
Scottish Gaelic it's spelled
Bealltainn. Both are from
Old Irish Beltene ('bright fire') from
belo-te(p)niâ. Beltane was formerly spelled 'Bealtuinn' in Scottish Gaelic; in Manx it's spelt 'Boaltinn' or 'Boaldyn'.
In Modern Irish,
Oidhche Bealtaine or Oíche Bealtaine is May Eve, and
Lá Bealtaine is May Day.
Mí na Bealtaine, or simply
Bealtaine is the name of the month of May.
In the word
belo-te(p)niâ) the element
belo- is cognate with the English word
bale (as in 'bale-fire'), the
Anglo-Saxon bael, and also the
Lithuanian baltas, meaning 'white' or 'shining' and from which the
Baltic Sea takes its name.
In
Gaelic the terminal vowel
-o (from
Belo) was dropped, as shown by numerous other transformations from early or Proto-Celtic to
Early Irish, thus the Gaulish deity names
Belenos ('bright one') and
Belisama.
From the same
Proto-Celtic roots we get a wide range of other words: the verb
beothaich, from Early Celtic
belo-thaich ('to kindle, light, revive, or re-animate');
baos, from
baelos ('shining');
beòlach ('ashes with hot embers') from
beò/
belo +
luathach, ('shiny-ashes' or 'live-ashes'). Similarly
boil/
boile ('fiery madness'), through Irish
buile and Early Irish
baile/
boillsg ('gleam'), and
bolg-s-cio-, related to
Latin fulgeo ('shine'), and English 'effulgent'.
According to the Gaelic scholar Dáithí Ó hÓgáin
Céad Shamhain or Cétshamhainin means "first half", which he links to the Gaulish word
samonios (which he suggest means "half a year") as in the end of the "first half" of the year that begins at
Samhain. According to Ó hÓgáin this term was also used in Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. In Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary it's refered to as
Céadamh(ain) which it explains is short for Céad-shamh(ain) meaning "first (of) summer". The dictionary also states that
Dia Céadamhan is May Day and
Mí Céadamhan is May.
Revival
A revived
Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year since 1988 during the night of
30 April on
Calton Hill in
Edinburgh,
Scotland and attended by up to 15,000 people (except in 2003 when local council restrictions forced the organisers to hold a private event elsewhere).
Neopagan
Beltane is observed by
Neopagans in various forms, and by a variety of names. As forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have very different origins, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name. Some celebrate in a manner as close as possible to how the Ancient Celts and Living Celtic cultures have maintained the traditions, while others observe the holiday with rituals taken from numerous other unrelated sources, Celtic culture being only one of the sources used.
Celtic Reconstructionist
Like other
Reconstructionist traditions,
Celtic Reconstructionist Pagans place emphasis on historical accuracy. They base their celebrations and rituals on traditional lore from the living Celtic cultures, as well as research into the older beliefs of the
polytheistic Celts.
Celtic Reconstructionists usually celebrate
Lá Bealtaine when the local
hawthorn trees are in bloom, or on the full moon that falls closest to this event. Many observe the traditional bonfire rites, to whatever extent this is feasible where they live, including the dousing of the household hearth flame and relighting of it from the community festival fire. Some decorate May Bushes and prepare traditional festival foods. Pilgrimages to
holy wells are traditional at this time, and offerings and prayers to the spirits or deities of the wells are usually part of this practice. Crafts such as the making of equal-armed
rowan crosses are common, and often part of rituals performed for the blessing and protection of the household and land.
Wicca
Wiccans and Wiccan-inspired Neopagans celebrate a variation of Beltane as a
sabbat, one of the eight solar holidays. Although the holiday may use features of the Gaelic Bealtaine, such as the
bonfire, it bears more relation to the Germanic
May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as
maypole dancing). Some Wiccans celebrate 'High Beltaine' by enacting a ritual union of the
May Lord and
Lady.
Among the Wiccan sabbats, Beltane is a
cross-quarter day; it's celebrated in the northern hemisphere on
May 1 and in the southern hemisphere on
November 1. Beltane follows
Ostara and precedes
Midsummer (see the
Wheel of the Year).
[Further Information]
Get more info on 'Beltane'.
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