Beltaine – the Celtic Fire festival falls midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, and denotes the start of summer. Yay!
Each eve of Beltaine, the ancient Celtic people would call upon Belinus, the Celtic sun god. They would seek his blessing over the land, the trees, fields and crops. He was asked to uphold the doorways between the fairy and human worlds.
Celtic people planned their festivals to indicate each changing time span in the yearly cycle. In many places, fires were lit at dusk and kept alight throughout the night, in welcome to the summer season. One of the rituals of welcome, it is said, was when the fairies mixed among the people and danced around the May Pole These days, it is often school children who continue the ancient custom, acting the dance out in villages and towns.
Beltaine and the other Celtic seasons feature in the lives of the iron age people in my next novel:
WILD BRIGANTIA. Coming soon……
Happy summer!
