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Party pagan style
Bealtaine was lusty stuff, all about fertility and new beginnings.
Pagan tradition holds that this is the time when the Celtic sun and healer God, Belenus, has reached manhood and the Earth Goddess has reached womanhood. Bealtaine is the night when they finally meet at the time of sap rising in the trees, blossoms opening and fertility permeating the air. The God and Goddess become consumed with love and passion. They unite on the grass, amongst the blossoms, under the moon and the stars until dawn breaks the sky. The Goddess rises pregnant, signifying to the world the return to life, of the summer light from the winter darkness. It is a time to honour creativity, sexuality and love through crop blessings, love making and unbridled merriment.
Bealtaine was the nuptial feast of Heaven and Earth. The atmosphere was geared to youthful exuberance, sensuality, pleasure and creative endeavours. Festivals saw the young bucks demonstrating their talents in fighting and hunting competitions. There was dancing, music, song, storytelling, feasting and much, much drinking.
All home fires were put out and great ritual fires were lit (The flames of which, at the end of the festivities, would be taken home to each house and the ashes spread across the fields to keep the magic going). Cattle, the life blood of the communities, were driven between the flames of the fires to bring them health and prosperity. People jumped the flames in the hope of fertility.
Bealtaine was a time where couples came together in ceremonies of hand fasting, a formal ceremony where two lovers pledge themselves to each other in a trial marriage for a year and a day by tying their hands together with a ribbon and jumping the fire.
Many others preferred the less formal “greenwood marriages” where both young and old honoured the Gods’ union by making love in the woods until the sun rose. Even with Christianity, these customs prevailed with the acceptance of older married couples removing their wedding bands and the restrictions attached for this night of Bealtaine celebration. To quote Kipling:“Oh do not tell the priest our plight or he would call it a sin, but we have been out in the woods all night A-conjuring summer in.”
Such unions were celebrated with no reprisals. In fact nine months later comes the festival of Imbolic associated with midwifery and childbirth. Surnames such as Hodson and Johnson may bear reference to a far off Bealtaine Eve.
It was a time of the year when waking up in the morning, wet with dew, was considered fortunate as it was believed to have magical qualities for beauty and clear skin. Even the rain on May Day was lucky as it was considered to be a blessing for the head as it fell.
The festivities, through the energy generated by the rituals and merriment, paved the way forward to great prosperity and growth in the year ahead. In these times of recession who knows, we might see many more Bealtaine fires a burning once again!!!
By: Erica Byrne
