Beltane Is Upon Us!

Commonly known as May Day, Beltane celebrates fertility, and is observed on May 1 as a religious holiday for many Wiccans, Celts and Druids, and as a secular holiday in many parts of Europe.  The most common symbol of Beltane is the Maypole.  If you have never seen a Maypole dance, it involves a tall pole strung with ribbons.  Participants form two circles that move in opposite directions and interweave with each other, eventually creating a braid of ribbons encircling the Maypole.

For Wiccans, this holiday represents the physical union of the God & Goddess.  It is a joyous (and often raucous) holiday.  In days of old, celebrants would feast, sing, play music and dance around the bonfire before running off into the woods in pairs to observe the Great Rite.  While some still celebrate in that exact fashion, many people now save the observance of the Great Rite for a more private area, such as their home or tent.

Clearly the Great Rite is not an appropriate way to celebrate for children, so families often choose to have children participate in a symbolic representation of it, which is what a Maypole dance was originally intended to be- the interweaving of energies to produce fertility.  It can also represent fertility for the planting season, which is the piece most families focus on when discussing the holiday with younger children. 

As stated in my piece on Yule traditions, our family is still young, and family celebrations are new to us.  As the demands of the modern world pull at us as well, we will delay our festivities until the weekend, when we will observe the holiday with a feast involving lots of fresh foods, light a fire in the fire pit to tell stories and sing by, and start work on our garden.