Legends and Lore of Beltane

In many cultures, there are different legends and lore surrounding the Beltane season – after all, it’s a time that marks fire and fertility, and the return of new life to the earth. Let’s look at some of the magical stories about this spring celebration.

Like Samhain, the holiday of Beltane is a time when the veil between the worlds is thin. Some traditions believe that this is a good time to contact the spirits, or to interact with the Fae. Be careful, though — if you visit the Faerie Realm, don’t eat the food, our you’ll be trapped there, much like Thomas the Rhymer was!

Some Irish dairy farmers hang a garland of green boughs over their door at Beltane. This will bring them great milk production from their cows during the coming summer. Also, driving your cattle between two Beltane bonfires helps protect your livestock from disease

The pious Puritans were outraged by the debauchery of Beltane celebrations. In fact, they made Maypoles illegal the mid 1600’s, and tried to put a halt to the “greenwood marriages” that frequently took place on May Eve. One pastor wrote that if “tenne maiden went to set (celebrate) May, nine of them came home gotten with childe.”

According to a legend in parts of Wales and England, women who are trying to conceive should go out on May Eve — the last night of April — and find a “birthing stone”, which is a large rock formation with a hole in the center. Walk through the hole, and you will conceive a child that night. If there is nothing like this near you, find a small stone with a hole in the center, and drive a branch of oak or other wood through the hole — place this charm under your bed to make you fertile.

If you go out at sunrise on Beltane, take a bowl or jar to gather morning dew. Use the dew to wash your face, and you’re guaranteed a perfect complexion. You can also use the dew in ritual as consecrated water, particularly in rituals related to the moon or the goddess Diana or her counterpart, Artemis.

In the Irish Book of Invasions, it was on Beltane that Patholan, the first settler, arrived on Ireland’s shores. May Day was also the date of the defeat of the Tuatha de Danaan by Amergin and the Milesians.

Babies conceived at Beltane are considered a gift from the gods. They were sometimes referred to as “merry-begots”, because the mothers were impregnated during Beltane’s merrymaking.

In Cornwall, it’s traditional to decorate your door on May Day with boughs of hawthorn and sycamore.

Eating a special oatcake called a bannock or a Beltane cake ensured Scottish farmers abundance of their crops for the year. The cakes were baked the night before, and roasted in embers on a stone.
 

Source

Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com

 

May Day or Beltane

May Day or Beltane, commencing at the sunset on 30 April. The divinity ruling Beltane is the solar fire deity, variously named Balor, Bel, Belenos, and Baldur, but it is also the time of all deities of growth and fecundity. The sacred color is white. The Asatru God Bragi and the Goddess Iduna are associated with this feast. This time, including May Eve and Walpurgis Night, is a magical time, when the Beltane fires are kindled and revels held in celebration of te oncoming summertime. Then, it is customary to leap through the smoke and flames to purify oneself in preparation for the coming summer season and to promote fertility. The Beltane fire is traditionally composed of wood taken from nine different types of trees and is kindled on a specially prepared sacred nine different types of trees and is kindled on a specially prepared sacred grid. This is made by drawing a square on the ground and dividing it into nine smaller squares. Turf from the eight outer squares is dug out and removed, but the ninth is left at the center. The Beltane fire is lit upon the central square b turning an oaken spindle in an oak log socket–the ancient way of generating fire. Formerly, it was customary to extinguish all of the fires in the locality on May Eve. These were then relit from the village’s Beltane fire. Burning at the center of the nine-square grid, the Beltane fire symbolized the central hearth of the community. These local sacred hearths represented the mystic divine fire at the center of all things, whose spark life is carried by each of us.

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

May Eve

 

“O do not tell the priests of our arts.
For they would call it sin,
For we will be in the woods all night
Aconjuring, conjuring summer in.

 

And we bring you good news by word of mouth.
For women, cattle and corn:
The sun is coming up from the south,
With oak and ash, and thorn.

—The Book of Shadows (1949)
Gerald Gardner

Beltane to Litha

Beltane (a greater Sabbat named for a Celtic god, which is otherwise known as either May Eve or May Day) hails the coming-together of the Horned God, now the Phallic Lord, and the irresistible Goddess in a rapturous celebration of life and light. It is as though all of nature–not least the birds and bees–is abuzz at this time of year, energized by a potent combination of irresistible physical attraction and an equally compelling urge to procreate.