Living Sweetly at the Festival of Beltane
The ancient spring festival of Beltane (or ‘May Day’) that occurs around 1st May each year is a celebration of life! Even for those of us who struggle with persistent heaviness or are living through a period of hardship, Beltane invites us to find the available pleasures which are often the simplest, and exalt them. When joy feels inaccessible, can we reach for hope? If hope is also out of reach, how can we create space for pleasure, even if it’s momentary and minimal? Making each moment just a little bit sweeter compounds into a delicious life.
What is Beltane?
Beltane, or May Day, is an ancient Celtic fire festival that occurs around 1st May each year. It falls halfway between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, marking the peak of spring. On the Wheel of Year, a neopagan and nature-based calendar which observes seasonal transitions as a continuous and never-ending cycle as opposed to the awkwardly linear Gregorian calendar western societies adhere to, there are eight festivals, or sabats. Four initiate seasons (the Solstices and Equinoxes) and are perhaps more collective in that they’re recognized solar and lunar phenomena, whereas the other four are cross-quarter festivals which occur at the height of each season and one might say have more folk / cultural associations that stem from Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic traditions. Regardless, most cultures around the world have their own ways of observing these eight seasonal markers which is why I truly believe the Wheel of the Year is for everyone.
Beltane is one of these cross-quarter festivals and means “bright fire” in Old Irish. Legend says that farmers would drive their stock around bonfires in a purification ritual during the relocation from barns to pastures, but it’s likely that the heat of the fire burned away critters and bacteria, hence the association between fire festivals and purification. In Celtic folklore Beltane was the time when the May Queen and the Green Man mated, symbolizing the earth’s fertility. The southern hemisphere observes Samhain at this time, when the veil between the embodied and disembodied realms is at its thinnest. Beltane, Samhain’s mirror, also carries the energy of mysticism and mischief. It’s said in some places that fairies are known to make the occasional appearance at Beltane! Speaking of mischief, last year I trekked to Edinburgh for the world-famous Beltane Fire Festival, and boy did it give new meaning to the word celebration!
Beltane Fire Festival, Edinburgh 2024, photo by the author
How to Observe Beltane
At Beltane, we’re fully out of hibernation and have transitioned from a period of contraction to one of expansion. Everything we see in the month of May is in a state of abundance. Flora and fauna are blossoming and birthing, and signs of Life are rampant in the spring. By this time of year our bodies have woken up and they are hungry for sensuousness. They want to move, to be in community, and they want pleasure whether that’s the scent of fresh lilac, the soft touch of lamb’s wool, or the warmth of another body.
In my experience, working with Beltane requires no ritual, no deity, and no tradition. A sacred festival it may be, but observing it comes naturally when we accept its invitation by submitting to the call to pleasure and sweetness. Embodying this energy means opening ourselves to hope for a brighter and different future. It means nourishing ourselves in whatever way feels right, even if it seems decadent or selfish. Accept the bounty of the earth by filling your home with cheerful flowers and seasonal produce from the garden. Open the windows and play upbeat music, dance, move! In the evenings, if the space is available to you, invite friends to sit around a fire and tell stories. Put the phones away and just be present.
“The Spring Equinox was about planning and putting down seeds. Now, during Beltane, we’ve entered the season of tending. Tending means caring. It means loving, which in large part means noticing and listening. Just as we must tend our garden with care, we must tend to ourselves, and each other.”
-Fiona Cook, The Wheel of the Year
A Celebration of Life
Everyone will describe the festival of Beltane differently, according - I believe - to how they experience it. Some will say it’s a seasonal event, others will say it’s a festival of fertility and nature. To me, the meaning of Beltane is a Bacchanalian celebration of life. A moment when the earth’s throbbing heartbeat is palpable to us mere mortals when we truly seek bliss. At this time of year, the zenith of spring, I personally feel the charge of pleasure in the air and consider how I can make each and every moment just a little bit sweeter.
The thing about bliss and pleasure is that they’re not exclusive. Unlike joy and happiness which seem to taunt those of us who carry the weight of shame, grief, or torment, pleasure is accessible, it’s egalitarian by nature. Pleasure is ephemeral and is defined solely by how we feel. There is no universal criteria for what constitutes pleasure, it belongs to each of us. Even when the darkness feels impenetrable, there is always pleasure to be found somewhere. Pleasure doesn’t ask us to forget our pain in order to savor the sweetness of a juicy peach. It doesn’t require optimism in exchange for the few minutes of bliss during our favorite song.
Apparently a day is comprised of 86,400 seconds. That’s 86,399 opportunities to make the next second just a little bit sweeter that are in no way dependent on whether or not we’re happy. Looking for suggestions on how to do this? Well that depends on what is pleasurable to you, but for me, I might light the nice scented candle instead of saving it. I might open the bottle of champagne for myself and a friend, take or leave the friend. I might stop and actually smell the flowers on my walk. Hell, I might even go treat myself to the fancy peonies in the shop instead of the half dead daisies in the bargain bin, just because every time I walk past those chubby pink blooms I feel pleasure.
Reclaiming some joie de vivre doesn’t cost much, all it takes is the willingness to create space for it.
The Wheel of the Year illustration by Kelly Louise Judd (used with the artist’s permission)