What is the Beltane ritual?
Beltane is a Celtic word which means ‘fires of Bel’ (Bel was a Celtic deity). It is a fire festival that celebrates of the coming of summer and the fertility of the coming year. These rituals would often lead to matches and marriages, either immediately in the coming summer or autumn.
Why does Beltane have a fire?
Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season, when livestock were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were held at that time to protect them from harm, both natural and supernatural, and this mainly involved the “symbolic use of fire”.
What do you say at Beltane?
We light the fires of Beltane, sending smoke up to the sky. The flames purify and protect, marking the turn of the Wheel of the Year.
What is the difference between Beltane and Samhain?
Samhain (Hallowe’en) In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the festival of Beltane, which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.
What is Bealtaine festival?
Bealtaine is a festival which occurs on May 1st and also refers to the month of May. It typifies our recent Irish ancestors’ dual spiritual tradition: predominantly Christian but with pagan aspects remaining. Bealtaine is one of the four major Irish Celtic annual festivals along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasa.
Is May Day a pagan holiday?
In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing some of the older pagan festivals and combining them with more recently developed European secular and Catholic traditions, and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival.
Who is the god of Beltane?
Beltane Gods include Apollo, Bacchus Bel/Belanos, Cernunnos, Pan, Herne, Faunus, Cupid/Eros, Odin, Orion, Frey, Robin Goodfellow, Puck, and The Great Horned God.
What is the opposite of Beltane?
Samhain
Samhain and the pagan roots of Halloween What occurs at Samhain is the opposite to Beltane: the end of summer and the return of cattle from their high summer pastures, received by large bonfires. Samhain marks the return of winter and a thinning of the veil between this world and the next, a time of chaos.
What is a Mabon celebration?
Mabon is a pagan holiday which celebrates the Autumnal equinox. In the astronomical season, it marks the first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere or the moment when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, meaning day and night are of equal length.
What is the significance of Beltane?
Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology . Also known as Cétshamhain (“first of summer”), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures.
What are May Day rituals?
The May Pole. The common ritual celebrated in modern May Day: In a May pole dance the girls stand to the right of the boys. All dances begin by honoring the May pole with the boys bowing and the girls curtsying to the pole and then to each other. Holding the ribbon with both hands the girls and boys weave the ribbons in an over under pattern.
When is Beltane celebrated?
Beltane is on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
What is Beltane holiday?
Beltane is an ancient Celtic holiday, celebrated on May 1st. It was a fertility festival; a day when the Celts celebrated nature’s ability to reproduce.