The beginning of the month of May is celebrated around the world, often in festival, fire, and games to honor the fertility and greening of Spring.
This holiday, called Beltane in Celtic lands is celebrated on April 30-May 1-3 with food, music, song. role-playing, bonfires, maypole dancing, singles meetings, fertility rituals and lots of good old fashioned reproductive energy.
The Celts honored the fertility of the earth with gifts and offerings, and blessings for the animals, the land, and the people. Cattle were driven through the smoke of the fires, and ceremoniously blessed for health and fertility in the coming year.
Fertility stones…doughnut shaped stones were ceremoniously used by those seeking fertility. The fertility seeker would pass their body through the center opening with ritual prayer and intention to become fruitful.
The veil between the earth and spirit was thin at Beltane. It was customary to leave a gift of milk or bread or food for the fairies for future abundance. But if you meet with the fairies and they invite you in, do not join them in a meal or drink, or they may keep you with them.
Hawthorne blossoms were and are still hung over barn doors to protect animals and increase milk production of the cattle. Another activity is to walk out at sunrise on Beltane morning, take a bowl or jar to gather morning dew from the grass and leaves. Use the dew to wash your face, and you will have a lovely complexion, or to wash a wound to heal it.
Eating Oat cakes is a Beltane tradition. Drinking May wine is also traditional made with the fresh blossoms of spring especially hawthorn and woodruff.
In ancient Ireland the holy wells were special places where the Mother was honored. The wells were visited and the hawthorn trees that grew nearby would have bits of cloth hung and tied to them with the wishes and intentions of the visitor.
Even today, the holy wells which have become transposed with Christian lore, now honor St. Brigit, Mary the holy mother (of Jesus Christ) and other female saints. Yet the practice of tying bits of rags with supplications and prayerful intentions still persists.
Also in ancient Ireland, all fires were extinguished on the eve of Beltane-May Eve, then the fires of Tara were the first ones lit every year. All other fires, in those ancient times, were lit with a flame or ember from Tara.
In Roman lands, the holiday was similarly celebrated, with the Festival of flowers. The beautiful sensual aromatic blossoms are the precursors of fruit bearing and seed. This was, of course, also a celebration of fertility and life. The games, plays, music, drinking and dancing went on for days. Animals were also blessed and a bonfire blazed in the final day of festival.
There are many other fertility celebrations around the world. All celebrate, pray for, and bless abundance and fertility including couples who are planning to conceive, pregnant women-couples who are expecting.
Beltane is the prefect holiday to celebrate your life, your passions, your sexuality, your creative endeavors. If you’ve been wanting to bring abundance and fertility of any sort into your life…whether you’re looking to conceive a child, enjoy fruitfulness in your business, your interests, your goals, your career, or just see your gardening efforts manifest and bloom.
So enjoy an old ritual or create your own. Sing, dance, celebrate and enjoy life.
