Back in the mists of time, November 1997 to be precise, I wrote an article about the ancient Celtic
ritual festival of Samhain (November �97 newsletter), and to celebrate it, the "hearty partiers" of the
Society met at Bridge Bay Resort for the first annual Samhain gathering. This hopefully will become an
annual event, especially as it falls on Halloween and we all enjoy a party.
Well folks, those of you who are well-versed in ancient Celtic festivals and rituals know that it is the
season of Beltane! Like Samhain (remember, it�s "sow-EEN", the sow as in the female pig), this is an
another ancient fire ritual, this time celebrating the end of Spring and the beginning of Summer, and was
the precursor to what is now May Day. I say it is an ancient fire ritual rather than was, because it is
still celebrated in Edinburgh on the night of April 30 on Calton Hill in Edinburgh to an intimate crowd
of between ten and twelve thousand spectators!
Anyhow, the Edinburgh festival is a re-incarnation of the ancient pagan Celtic fire ritual celebrating the
coming of the full sun and Summer growth after the lean times of Winter. The fire symbolizes the sun,
which finally burns away the darkness and suffering of the Winter months. Fire back then, of course,
was very important and was taken more seriously because there weren�t too many Bics around, and if a
fire went out it wasn�t that easy to start up again. During the ritual, the fire was circled three times
for good luck in the coming year, and the flames leapt through to ensure fertility. To purify the clan
cattle (ancient Celts, remember, were a pastoral culture) the beasts were herded between two bonfires.
The home fires that had burned throughout the Winter and Spring after Samhain, would now be
extinguished and re-lit with fresh fire from the hilltop where the communal fire was burning. Torches
were lit and swung to symbolize the re-born sun and ashes were smudged on people�s faces and scattered
into the fields.
Beltane was essentially a celebration of rampant fertility. (Those marauding mavens at Gibbs would
have been right at home at this one!) The interpretation of Beltane being a fertility rite is fairly
unshakable and is probably the reason why it has retained its charm and symbolism over thousands of
years. There are those though, who view Beltane as being associated with the occult. They argue that
the Bel in Beltane is synonymous with Baal, the god of the ancient Assyrians, or Baal Phegor, an ancient
Greek or Roman phallic god, or Baal Melkarth, a Phoenician sun god. Here we have a rogue�s gallery of
deities that could only be placated by blood sacrifice and were feared and respected by their
followers. The name was also linked to the name Baal Zebul, later corrupted to Beel-Zebub (the dung
god), from which is derived one of the incarnations of the Christian devil. However, none of this is
proven and may have been used by Christian historians to point to a darker side of the natural pagan
rituals and paint them as being sacrificial and evil.
A more obvious and Celtic origin of Bel would be Belenus, the pastoral god of the Gauls. Another
interpretation comes from the Isle of Lewis where the word Beltane is derived from beul, meaning
"mouth" and tein(e), meaning "fire". This interpretation seems logical as the main ritual consisted of
herding cattle between two fires to purify them, and is supported by references from other Celtic
influenced areas to bil tene meaning "lucky fire". In the Western Isles, there is a common saying, lath
buidhe Bealltain, which means "the lucky day of Beltane". There, the color yellow is equated with luck
(buidhe is Gaelic for yellow), however in this case probably refers more to the many yellow flowers that
bloom at that time of year. As you can see, this derivation of Beltane is far removed from that of occult
deities demanding blood sacrifice of first-born sons!
The present day Beltane celebration was started in 1988 in Edinburgh by Angus Farqhar, who wanted to
re-invent Beltane in a modern form, and so formed the Beltane Fire Society. The modern festival
consists of a two-hour May Day procession and "wild after-events". Sounds like Spring Break to me!
(The marauding mavens would definitely fit in here!). The main characters are the May Queen and her
consort, the Green Man. The Green Man is the human embodiment of the transition from Winter to
Summer who dies at the hands of the May Queen�s Hand Maidens. Re-born as the fresh young Oak Lord,
he is ready to join with the May Queen in consummating the ritual with the fertility that Summer and the
Beltane brings. Incidentally, there are lots of pubs in Britain, especially London, that are called The
Green Man. Or, like the one I used to frequent pretty regularly, The Green Man and the French Horn
where I participated in a few "belt anes" masel ye ken. (Maybe that�s where the word comes from!)
These may probably be named for this ancient Celtic Beltane character. Of course I have no proof of
this and anyway, pubs are another story.
As usual, I�ve run off at the bleedin mouf again, in�t I. Get on a topic and do it ter bleedin def ("death"
in proper English) and now you know more than you ever wanted to about a subject no one had a clue
existed. Actually, there�s a lot more and most of what I�ve written here came verbatim from the WWW
and the only requirement to be able to do that was to give the web address. So here it is for those of
you who want even more detailed info on Beltane:
http://www.electricfrog.co.uk/beltane/intro.htm [Sorry, this link no longer works]
