Beltane Blessings

Today is Beltane. The midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It is a time of renewal and fresh beginnings. A time of growth. A seasonal festival which has been celebrated for centuries.

Historically, Beltane was celebrated by the Irish and the Scottish and was one of the four main Gaelic seasonal festivals. This one marking the driving out of the cattle to pasture, but not before rituals were performed to protect the cattle, the crops and the people. Rituals to encourage growth and abundance.

Bonfires were lit and believed to have special protective powers. People would leap over them or walk around them with their cattle to let the protective smoke and ash waft over them. They would douse the fires in their homes and then relight them with the flames from the bonfires to bring those protective powers insdie their homes.

There would be grand feasts with some of the food and drink offered to the aos si...or the faeries...to keep in their good graces. Nobody wants to make the faeries unhappy because those magickal beings could either make the crops grow or cause them to wilt into the ground.

In Ireland, the people would make a May bush from a thorn bush decorated with ribbons, flowers and bright shells. There would be visits to holy wells and the morning dew collected to because it was believed to preserve youthfulness.

Such a simple time those early days were when we celebrated what the earth provided and enjoyed the company of family and friends. Wouldn't it be just lovely to bring those rituals and celebrations back to life in our modern world? I think it would.

Here's wishing you a blessed Belane.