LivingTravelBeltane - Cozy summer with an ancient Celtic festival

Beltane – Cozy summer with an ancient Celtic festival

On April 30, thousands will climb Edinburgh’s Calton Hill to participate in a kind of free-for-all Gaelic culture entertainment, while in the South Downs National Park they will party, dance and burn a wicker man the same night. It all runs through May 1 with a Beltane festival at Thornborough Henge in North Yorkshire and celebrations of the lustful month of May across the country.

And don’t worry if you can’t get to the UK in time for the April / May holiday. In the town of Peebles, in the Scottish Borders, they do it again in June.

What is beltane?

Beltane is one of four seasonal festivals with which the Celts of Great Britain and Ireland marked major milestones throughout the year. Its origins date back to the Stone Age and all of them, except Beltane, were absorbed into the Christian calendar:

  • Lammas or Lughnasadh, once Marked in Ireland and Scotland on August 1, it was a celebration of the first wheat harvest (Lammas – bread dough) and is still a time for the first harvest festivals, here and there across the UK.
  • Samhain, pronounced sowing, was the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark days of winter on November 1. Survive as All Hallows – Last night is Halloween. 
  • Imbolc , pronounced imolg, celebrated the beginning of spring and the lengthening of days. In Ireland and parts of Scotland, it is marked as St Bridget’s Day.
  • Beltane celebrates the beginning of summer, symbolically welcomed by the Queen of May, a kind of fertility figure. The Green Man, an anarchic figure of male fertility, sometimes participates and in some versions of this festival a wicker man is burned, symbolizing the passing of the old season. In ancient times, cattle could have been offered for sacrifice (comfortably then cooked for the feast) inside the wicker man.

Of the four festivals or “Quarter Days,” only Beltane has resisted redefinition as a Christian festival and has retained its echoes of pagan fertility rites. Because of that, it faded into the Victorian era and was almost forgotten in the early 20th century. The only sign of it was in the more innocent festivities of May Day, although, considering their pagan origins, how innocent was the subtext of all those innocent young women dancing around the Maypole?

New interest for a new era

With the revival of New Age paganism and Wiccan plus a renewed interest in Celtic and Gaelic traditions. Beltane has been popping up here and there on the British festival calendar. These days it is more of a cultural celebration with music, performances, food and drink, but it can also be an occasion to learn about older British customs such as manual fasting.

Did you know

The terms Gaelic and Celtic are often used interchangeably or confused when speaking of Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and Old English traditions. Actually, the term Celtic refers to the ethical tribal groups that spread across parts of Europe and settled in the British Isles. It is also used to describe your ethical traditions. Gaelic is used correctly to describe their languages.

Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival

Since 1988 , The Beltane Fire Society, a registered charity, has been hosting a modern revival of the Beltane on Calton Hill, overlooking Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. What started as a small gathering of enthusiasts has now grown into a participation event with hundreds of artists and thousands of revelers. Described by the organizers as “the only festival of its kind in the world”, it is a spectacle of death, rebirth and the “eternal battle of the seasons.”

What makes this event unique is that the story unfolds all over the hill, with no barriers between the audience and the artists. Celtic characters and fire dancers spread throughout the public park.

This is a ticketed event with entry to Calton Hill from Edinburgh’s Waterloo Place. Events begin at 8 pm on April 30 of each year and last approximately 1 am. Tickets are available online at Citizen Ticket for £ 11 or at the door for £ 15 if one is available. It’s actually a good idea to book early because this is a popular event and once the grounds are full the gates are closed.

Beltain and the burning wicker man at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire

Butser Ancient Farm is an unusual archaeological site that functions as a working farm and open-air research laboratory where the working methods and lifestyles of the Neolithic British are explored. Located near Waterlooville, Hampshire, the farm is in the heart of the South Downs National Park. They celebrate the start of summer by setting fire to a 30-foot-tall wicker man at the culmination of their festival.

Your Beltain celebration (note slightly different spelling) includes crafts, hot food, live bands and drums, dancers, storytellers, face painting (with cloth), bird of prey demonstrations, Roman cooking, traditional skills demonstrations , Morris men and more.

The celebration, from 4:30 pm to 10 pm (Saturday 4 May 2019) is ticketed, with advance tickets, costing £ 20 for adults available online until 1 April. The farm is off the A3 between London and Portsmouth, about 5 miles south of Petersfield and signposted from the Chalton / Clanfield exit. Cars are not allowed on site, but parking is on a hill above the farm, about a 15 minute downhill walk (remember, it is also an uphill walk in the dark at the end of the event, so bring a flashlight ).

 

Beltane and Thornborough Henges and North Yorkshire

The Thornborough Henges is an ancient monument and ritual landscape made up of three giant circular earthworks. It was created by one of the first Neolithic farming communities, around 5,000 years ago, but its purpose is unknown. It is located in North Yorkshire Ridings, north of Ripon.

Since about 2004, a group of local pagan enthusiasts has been sponsoring a Beltane festival with camping here. The henges are a protected landscape that is being mapped and studied, so this is the only time of year that it is open to the public.

The event is dedicated to the goddess Brigantia who was worshiped by an ancient local Celtic tribe known as the Brigantes. The crowd is a mix of committed pagans, dressing up and recreating enthusiasts and people who like to have a good time at a camping festival. The atmosphere is clearly New Age.

The campsite, which costs £ 3 per person per night in 2019, must be booked in advance, but day entry is free. Payment is made through Paypal to [email protected] , indicating how many people and what nights. Beltane’s ceremony begins at noon, Sunday, May 5, holiday weekend.

The site is remote and cannot be reached by public transport. See here for instructions.

Beltane Week at Peebles

The town of Peebles, on the Scottish Borders, has held a Beltane Fair since at least 1621, when it was granted statute by King James VI of Scotland (who was also James I of England). There are even earlier reports that King James I of Scotland witnessed the festival in the 1400s.

Traditionally, the fair coincided with May Day on May 1, but in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, it was combined with another traditional festival – The Common Ridings – and moved to June. Peebles has held the event in June, around midsummer, ever since. In 2019, Peebles Beltane Week takes place June 16-22, with the Beltane Festival itself on Saturday, June 23. Events during the week include local dances, a concert, border marches, and a costume parade.

On Saturday, Queen Beltane is crowned. This is primarily a daytime affair with a parade of the Queen with her fairy court and many bands and pipers.

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