Also called Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, May Eve, May dew washing, May bush
The cluster of May Day customs that welcomed summer: raising a decorated maypole, Gaelic Beltane fires that cattle and people passed between for protection, and washing the face in dew on May morning for beauty and health.
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Take care: Keep any fire in a proper hearth, fire pit or fireproof dish, with water or an extinguisher at hand; never leave flames unattended and check local burn bans. Do not walk through or jump over flames; passing between two lanterns keeps the meaning without the risk. Hawthorn bringing into the house was considered unlucky in parts of Britain, so many keep it outdoors.
Cormac's Glossary explains Belltaine as a lucky fire and says druids lit two fires with incantations and drove cattle between them against disease. Folklorists found cattle still being driven between or around fires in parts of Ireland and Scotland in the 19th century, often lit by friction as a need-fire.
Pepys noted that his wife went to Woolwich to gather May dew the next morning, taught by Mrs Turner that it was the best thing to wash her face with. Newspapers still reported crowds bathing their faces in the fields on May morning in 1791.
Instead of a tall pole, households decorated a hawthorn, rowan or holly branch with flowers, ribbons, painted shells and Easter eggshells, and set it by the door or on the roof to bring summer's blessing to the house.
Uses: Hawthorn branch, Ribbons, Painted eggshells
Beltane is one of the four Gaelic quarter days, marking the start of summer when herds went up to the summer pastures. The earliest notice is in Sanas Cormaic, a glossary of the early 10th century, which describes the two protective fires. Maypoles are a separate custom. Ronald Hutton dates the first British maypoles to roughly 1350 to 1400, within Christian parish culture, and rejects the idea that they were carved or understood as phallic.
Parliament banned maypoles in 1644 as a heathenish vanity. After the Restoration in 1660 Londoners put them up at every crossway, and the Strand maypole stood over 130 feet tall until 1672. The ribbon-plaiting dance most people picture is a 19th-century addition, shaped by theatre and by John Ruskin's May Queen festivals. Modern Pagans adopted Beltane as a sabbat in the 20th century, borrowing freely from both traditions.
Two rowan twigs bound into an equal-armed cross with red thread and placed over doors, byres and cradles to keep witches and fairies out.
The night of 30 April, when German folklore said witches gathered on the Brocken mountain, and people lit hilltop fires, rang bells and made noise to drive them and winter away. It is still kept with bonfires in Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Czech Republic.
A Scottish Highland New Year rite of blessing a house with water and the smoke of burning juniper. It is an open European alternative to white-sage smudging, which belongs to closed Indigenous ceremonial practice.
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