Beltane

May Eve ~ April 30th
May Day ~ May 1st
A Sabbat to celebrate the fullness of Spring and the awakening Sun

Culture and Traditions

The festival of Bel's fire (Beltane) celebrates the burgeoning of spring in the Northern hemisphere.  It's the mating season, and the urge to pair up is strong in all living creatures.  Green foliage is bursting forth from winter's gray blanket.  Everywhere flowers are blooming, the air is warming, and animals are coming forth from their burrows and seeking mates.  It's also a time of the thinning veil, just like it's mirror opposite, Samhain. Beltane (May Eve or May Day) is a high Holy day, and is sometimes celebrated over an entire day, with a ritual held at sun-up, another at mid-day, and a fire festival at night.
In older times, young people would rise early and go into the fields and forests to gather flowers and blossoming branches.  Their arms loaded with fragrant flowers, they would return to decorate their surroundings with the glorious blossoms of spring.  Occasionally on these forays into Nature, couples found each other and celebrated the rites of spring in the forests.  Children born of these couplings were considered blessed by the Gods.  One old folkname for these children of the Beltane rites was "woods colts."
The most well-known Beltane custom is the Maypole dance.  A tall pole was cut and erected in a village square of forest clearing.  It's top was adorned with long streaming ribbons and a wreath of flowers was laid over the top.  The ribbons were taken up by dancers who formed two circles and faced in opposite direction, interweaving with each other as the sance proceeded, their ribbons plaiting and wrapping the pole as the wreath slid down from the top.  Phallic symbolism is rampant, as is yonic symbolism.  This is the nature of Beltane.

Ritual Ideas

Maypole dance - even if a perfect balance of male/female dancers is not available, or there's an odd number of dancers, don't hesitate to try a Maypole dance anyway.  Let the energy of music (whether taped or live) carry the circling dancers in whatever pattern moves them.  A riot of colored ribbons is just as beautiful as an orderly pattern.  Save the Maypole for offering to the Samhain fire.
Plaiting magick - colored ribbons, thread, yarn, etc. can be woven or braided in sacred space to work acts of individual magick.  use color correspondences in alignment with the type of magick you wish to work.  Braid a bracelet or other small item while visualizing your intention or need.  Wear the braided item or tie it to your clothing until your need has been met or until it seems the proper time to burn it of bury it.
Make a Witches' Ladder - one type of Witches' Ladder is to use several strands of stout cording (preferably something natural and organic) and prepare to weave a large braid.  Begin by tying a loop, then start braiding the ends.  Allow each person to incorporate an item of offering (a bundle of herbs, an incense stick, a wand of a certain type of wood, a piece of jewelry, a lock of hair, etc.) into the braid and work the item in tightly.  When all items are braided into the ladder, finish the bottom off and tie it tightly.  Allow it to be blessed and let it hang until Samhain when it may be burnt in a ritual bonfire.

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