Beltane | |||||
Beltane is halfway around the Year Wheel from Samhain. While Samhain celebrated the dead, Beltane celebrated new life and the end of Winter's rule. Back at Samhain we made a figure to represent Old Man Winter.
But on Beltane Old Man Winter's reign ends so he must die.
Purpose: Beltane celebrates the successful beginning of the growing season, as well as honoring human sexuality. Many May Day traditions collected from the ancient Pagans are still carried on in various forms at the present time. The nut hunt that goes on today is a variation of ancient symbolism: the nuts symbolized the human testicles to the ancient Pagans (and is probably where the modern slang for testes being referred to as "nuts" comes from). The ancient Greeks honored the promiscuous nature god Pan and the nymphs at this time, and spellwork for love and sex would be especially powerful now. Other modern practices carried over from ancient times for this holiday include dancing around the maypole, which was symbolic of the male phallus to the Pagan cultures in the past, and of jumping over the fire, something women used to do for blessings and fertility (as a masculine element, the fire was also seen as a symbolic phallus). BACK I BELTANE I IMBOLIC I LAMMAS I LITHIA I MABON I OSTARA I SAMHAIN I YULE I EMAIL |