Beltane (01/05)

Celebrated on the night of May 1, Beltane (Beltane or Beltaine) was one of the two most important holidays of the Celtic calendar year, divided into two equal periods, opening with the major holidays of — Samhain on November 1 and Beltane (Beltane) — on May 1. These dates were associated with the most important milestones of the pastoral calendar — by driving livestock to summer pastures in the first days of May and returning them to stalls for the winter period — by November 1.

Since ancient times, the rituals dedicated to these two holidays had great similarities with each other, since their essentially semantic meaning coincided: through ritual actions, people sought to ensure the well-being of their family, the entire community, and preserve the basis of their well-being — livestock and crops. As on Samhain, the central ritual of the Belthain holiday was to light large fires on the tops of mountains or high hills located near the village.

In its origin, this rite, judging by individual surviving fragments and its description in historical sources, is associated with the cult of the sun, which formed an important part of the pagan beliefs of the ancient Celts. This is how this ritual was described in medieval sources: for several days before May 1, community residents collected fuel for the fires of Beltine. Only certain types of trees could be placed in such fire, which was considered sacred. At the top of the mountain, space and fuel were prepared for two fires, and a round ditch was dug around both fires, spacious enough to accommodate all those gathered.

On the eve of Beltain, lights were extinguished in all houses in the village. Long before dawn, residents left their homes and began to climb up the slope, chasing all their livestock in front of them. The procession was led by druids dressed in white cloaks. Having reached the place prepared for the fire, everyone stood in the ditch around the fire and silently waited for dawn. When the east began to fall, people especially respected in the village made fire for the fire (by rubbing two dry pieces of wood against each other).

The fire was lit with the first rays of the sun. They sang a solemn hymn to the sun, after which those gathered walked around the fire ditch three times, three times they also drove cattle through the fire (along a narrow passage between the fires), with lit torches in their hands they walked around the animals, around their plots of land and houses. These same torches lit a new fire in the hearth.

The purpose of ceremonies with fire was twofold: the older — propitiation and veneration of the forces of nature, and above all the sun god, aimed at keeping herds unharmed, obtaining good offspring of livestock, and crops in the fields. In the Shetland Islands, these fires usually burned for three days, and these days, early in the morning, every resident of the village had to greet the sun, telling him: «Good morning!» («Gude morneen!»).

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