The Story of Beltane

Beltane, on May 1, is one of the four great Gaelic quarter-days — Samhain, Imbolc, Lughnasadh, and Beltane — and it's Samhain's opposite pole. Samhain opens the dark half of the year; Beltane opens the light. In Ireland and Scotland it marked the start of summer, when the cattle were driven out to their summer pastures. The ritual was fire, and it was practical magic: two great bonfires were lit, and the herds were driven between them, so the smoke and the flame would bless and protect the animals through the season ahead. Households let their hearth fires go out and relit them from the Beltane flame. Doors and windows were warded with rowan and May flowers. And May Eve, just like Samhain Eve, was understood to be a night when the otherworld ran close, and a little mischief was abroad.

The Maypole you picture with it is really more of an English and German custom that wandered in and merged with the day over the centuries. The honest Beltane is smoke, cattle, flowers, and a fire on a hill. These days, Edinburgh's great Beltane Fire Festival — revived in 1988 — draws thousands of people up Calton Hill every May Eve, which suggests the old hinge of the year still turns just fine.

In the Grove: Samhain is our new year of the dark, and Beltane is its bright twin. We keep it with flowers on the door and a thankful heart — the light half of the year has arrived at last.