In this chapter, we’ll explore some of the history and lore surrounding Beltane, so that you’ll have a deeper well of inspiration with which to satisfy the thirst of your own creativity and spirit of innovation. We magickal folks have always honored tradition while at the same time adapting those traditions to better reflect our own experience with the natural world around us. As you’ll see, Beltane has been honored in many different ways each unique to its own time and place, yet common themes of growth, protection, abundance, fertility, light, love, and sexuality can be found throughout.
Beltane is the cross-quarter day falling roughly halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice—a time when days are growing longer and the sun’s strength is waxing. It’s six months after Samhain, another of the cross-quarter holidays. Beltane is a time when flowers begin to bloom and green plants enjoy a growth spurt. It’s a time of fertility and growth; a time to celebrate love, light, and sexuality.
In Wiccan metaphor, Beltane can be seen as the time when the solar earth deity, or Horned God, has grown up into a lusty young man ready to mate with the lunar earth goddess, or Triple Goddess, in her youthful, sensual maiden aspect, ripe for fertilizing. It can be seen as the time of year when the Oak King, symbolic of the earth god’s lighter half, reigns supreme, having triumphed over his twin, rival, and darker side, the Holly King, at the preceding winter solstice. The Holly King and Oak King are not originally Celtic ideas, as they are often erroneously attributed; rather, these archetypes were first popularized in Robert Graves’s book The White Goddess, and can be understood as representations of the timeless myth of the annual battle between winter and summer, dark and light, that we find in many cultures (Bramshaw, 222). According to Graves, while the Holly King rules the darker, waning half of the year, a time when the sun is fading and days are growing shorter, the Oak King presides over the waxing, lighter, brighter half of the year.
Beltane celebrations are most commonly held beginning at sundown on April 30 and ending at sundown on May 1 (October 31 through November 1 in the Southern Hemisphere). There are, however, other ways to time the festival. You might time it to fall exactly between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, in which case, if you’re a Northern Hemisphere witch, you would hold your celebration when the ecliptic longitude of the sun reaches 45 degrees. You might determine the date by observing signs in nature. In Celtic lands, the hawthorn trees were generally in their flowering stage when the proper time for the festival arrived; you might decide to celebrate Beltane when the hawthorns or other flowering thorn trees in your area burst into bloom. The Celtic festival of Beltaine corresponded with the time when livestock were moved into summer pastures to graze; if you’re a livestock farmer, you might choose to plan your own Beltane celebration to sync up in the same way.
You might, like some Druids of the past and the present, determine the proper date by following the movement of the stars. You could time your celebration to coincide with the point where the sun is positioned at 15 degrees relative to Taurus. Taurus, symbolized by the bull, is one of the four fixed cardinal signs of the zodiac and an important “power point” in the astrological year. The Druids, according to Julius Caesar, placed great importance on learning about “the stars and their movements,” (Littleton) and their positioning in relation to the earth and the sun was likely believed to have influence over the everyday lives of humans, connecting people to Nature’s ever-changing energetic currents. With Taurus the bull as its astrological ruler, Beltane brings with it energies capable of renewing life and enhancing growth. It’s a time of increasing strength, a time of vitality, a time of fertility and sexuality. It’s a time to connect to the living, breathing energies of the universe, a time to give thanks, and a time to ask for continued blessings and to secure supernatural protections. Ultimately, Beltane is a time to thrive and grow.
Beltane, as we modern Pagans know it, has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of Floralia as well as in the early Pre-Christian Celtic festival of Beltaine and other European May Day celebrations. Our modern Beltane is a composite of many different traditions, a blending of cultures, beliefs, and customs reflecting a common urge to welcome the coming of May and the warmer temperatures and thriving vegetation that comes with it.
Our modern Neopagan Beltane borrows its name and some of its more prominent customs from the early Pre-Christian Celtic festival of Beltaine, which celebrated the midpoint of the Celtic year and the beginning of the summer season. A pastoral people, the early Celts understood the year as twofold: there was the darker, colder half of the year beginning at Samhain that coincided with the time when cattle were slaughtered, and there was the lighter, warmer half of the year beginning at Beltaine that marked the time when cattle were led out to open summer pastures to graze.
Beltaine was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and many of its customs were adopted in other areas of Great Britain and Europe. The festival was known as Bealtaine to the Irish and Bealltainn in Scottish Gaelic, both names derived from a common Celtic word meaning “bright fire.”
The festival of Beltaine may have been originally connected to the worship of the Celtic god Belenus. Belenus was a widely recognized deity associated with healing, and his worship dates all the way back to prehistoric times (Jordan, 48). While Belenus is closely related to the Roman Apollo, a god of light and the sun, in Celtic culture Belenus was associated with fountains, health, and the pastoral lifestyle. Belenus is associated with the symbols of the phallic shaped stone, the bull, the horse, and the oak. As one of the Celtic high gods, Belenus was known in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Spain, England, and elsewhere. He was alternatively named Belen, Belenos, Belinus, Bellinus, Bélénos, Belennos, Bel, and other monikers, according to place, language, and tradition. Inscriptions to Belenus are found at many sites, primarily in France and Italy, but in other places in Europe as well. Inscriptions to Belenus have even been found in North America. At a site in New Hampshire called Mystery Hill, a 30-acre complex believed to have been a ritual site for early European explorers, among the findings was a stone tablet bearing an Ogham inscription that translates as “Dedicated to Bel” (Angel; Fleming).
While there is very little historical record and even less archeological evidence that illuminates much detail about early Celtic Beltaine rituals, we can surmise that these rituals were primarily focused on protecting cattle, crops, dairy products, and people and on encouraging fertility and growth. While Samhain was a time to connect with darker energies, Beltaine was a time to tune in to the current of life, renewal, and optimism.
Fire seems to have played a big role in Beltaine ceremonies. The earliest mention of the festival of Beltaine is found in an early medieval text from Ireland written by Cormac, bishop of Cashel and king of Munster. The text reports a festival held May 1 to mark the beginning of summer, and it describes a fire ritual performed at this time by the Druids. Two fires were made, and as incantations were spoken, cattle were forced to pass between the two torrents of raging flames. Another early mention of Beltaine comes from the seventeenth century historian Geoffrey Keating, who describes a huge gathering on the Hill of Uisneach in Ireland involving two bonfires, a stream of cattle passing between the flames, and a sacrifice made to a god named Bel. These actions were believed to protect the cattle from disease and thus safeguard the supply of dairy products and meat that were important supplements to the Celts’ diet (Hyde, 90).
Household fires were extinguished at Beltaine, then re-lit from communal bonfires. Both cattle and people walked between two raging bonfires or, alternatively, walked a circuit around the fire or jumped over the leaping flames as a magickal act intended to ensure a good harvest.
We know much more about Beltaine customs practiced in the late eighteenth century onward, as such traditions eventually gained the interest of folklorists who thought it prudent to take record of the continuations of this long-surviving Pagan rite. Many Beltaine customs remained relatively unchanged over the centuries. Beltaine bonfires retained popularity, and throughout the nineteenth century, the practice of driving cattle between two bonfires to ensure their health and protection was common throughout many parts of Ireland.
Beltaine bonfires were kindled solely with friction. Called a needfire, such a fire was considered sacred. In Ireland, a wheel and spindle were used to create the needfire; the wheel being an emblem of the sun and thus a perfect emblem for kindling a Beltaine blaze. On the islands of Skye, Mull, and Tiree off the coast of Scotland, a plank of oak featuring a hole bored through its center and an accompanying oak wimble were used. In some areas of Scotland, the friction was created with a square frame of green wood featuring an axle down the middle. Such contraptions were sometimes operated by multiple people working in teams. If any one of the party was guilty of murder, theft, adultery, or other heinous crimes, the fire would not start or its properties would be altogether void or significantly diminished. Once sparks were successfully created, a species of highly combustible agaric 1 that grows on birch trees was applied, causing an instant burst of flame from which the rest of the fire was kindled.
In Wales, even the gathering of the wood for the sacred Beltaine fire was performed with great ceremony. Nine men would be chosen to go into the woods to collect sticks and branches from nine different types of trees. Before they could do so, they had to empty their pockets of all money, coins, or other metal. After the wood had been gathered, a large circle was cut in the sod and the sacred sticks were placed in the middle and set ablaze.
The Beltaine fires were believed to have magickal properties. Their flames, their glowing embers, their ashes, and their smoke were all believed capable of granting health and protection. In the Isle of Man, the people invited the smoke of the bonfires to blow over themselves and their cattle, believing that this would ensure their mutual vitality. Once the fire died down, the ashes were sprinkled over the crops to increase the earth’s fertility. Some theorists believe the fires were intended to mimic the sun and were thus used in an imitative sense to ensure an adequate supply of sunlight. Other theorists believe the fires were used instead in a sympathetic sense, the destructive property of the fire utilized to destroy any baneful influences—both natural and “supernatural”—that might otherwise threaten the health of people, animals, and crops.
One interesting custom practiced in the Scottish Highlands involved cooking a special oatmeal cake at the side of the great Beltaine fire. The cake was formed with nine raised knobs on its surface, and as the knobs were broken off one by one and tossed into the flames, they were offered up as sacrifice and appeasement to both livestock and threats to livestock alike. One piece might be dedicated to the cattle, another piece to the fox, and so on, until the cake was all gone.
Another Scottish tradition involved an oatmeal cake being cooked in the fire and then divided into pieces equal to the number of people present. A piece of the cake was marked with charcoal and tossed into a bonnet along with the unmarred pieces. Blindfolded or with eyes closed, everyone would pick a piece of cake out of the bonnet. Whoever got the blackened piece became the unlucky victim of ridicule and a mock sacrifice. Termed the cailleach beal-tine, aka the “Beltaine carline” or the “Old Lady of Beltaine,” the victim was either very briefly or very nearly tossed into the flames of the bonfire, or, alternatively, was forced to leap over the fire three times. He or she was afterward bombarded with a barrage of eggs and eggshells, and for the next several days, the victim was spoken about as if he or she were dead. This might sound unpleasant, but as history and archeology affords evidence of actual human sacrifice taking place in other Celtic lands like England, the cailleach beal-tine tradition seems relatively harmless.
Fire wasn’t the only element believed to be especially potent at Beltaine. Water was also thought to have supernatural power. It was widely believed that the Beltaine morning dew was infused with magickal powers, capable of preserving youth, clearing skin ailments, and enhancing beauty and sexual attractiveness. Druids would collect the dew in a hollowed-out stone prior to sunrise on May Day morning. Whoever was sprinkled with this sacred dew could expect health and happiness. Young women would often roll in the dew on Beltaine morning or simply anoint their faces with the heavenly dew. Sometimes the dew was collected in a jar and left in the sunlight. It was then filtered and kept for use throughout the year as a versatile potion for beauty, healing, and more (MacLeod, 165).
Holy wells were also visited during the festival, and the first water drawn from a well on Beltaine morning was thought to be extremely potent and magickal. People would walk clockwise around the well to mimic the direction of the sun moving from east to west, then offerings of coins or other small tokens were given to the sacred well’s residing spirit in hopes of gaining their favor and blessing. Sometimes small strips of clothing were thrown in the well with the aim of healing illness and other infirmities (Monaghan, 41–42).
Flowers also played a prominent role in Beltaine celebrations. Up until the late nineteenth century, it was common practice throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man to deck the halls and more with flowers come Beltaine. Yellow flowers were most often used, being the color symbolic of both fire and the sun. Primrose, hawthorn, rowan, marsh marigold, and gorse were frequently chosen for their colorful yellow blooms. Flowers were scattered on the threshold of the home as a means of ensuring magickal protection. Cows were also gussied up with flower garlands, and even the equipment used in the butter- and milk-making process received the same treatment.
Such customs were considered wise protection in light of the sídhe, a type of faerylike spirit believed to cause mischief. They were thought to be especially active on Beltaine (just as they are on Samhain), and dairy products often fell victim to their pranks. As an added precaution, small offerings of food and drink were placed at areas frequented by the sídhe in hopes of appeasing the spirits and avoiding their vengeance (MacLeod, 166). Other methods of fending off sídhe attacks included turning one’s clothing inside out or carrying a small piece of iron, a substance long believed to have protective, witchcraft-negating qualities.
On the Isle of Man, the coming of May was celebrated for centuries with clockwise dancing in honor of the sun. Bushes were also burned across the island in hopes of banishing the witches and faeries believed to be taking refuge in the shrubbery.
As a festival, Beltaine had pretty much died out by the mid-twentieth century, but many of its customs were continued, blending in with more secular springtime celebrations. In recent years, the holiday has been revived in many places, celebrated as a community cultural event. Some traditions haven’t needed reviving. In Arklow, Ireland, the Beltaine fire-making custom has continued into the present day, though it’s not always taken as a sacred affair. In the May 5, 2005, edition of Wicklow People, it was reported that some residents used the Beltaine fires as an opportunity to dispose of old furniture and other unwanted household goods, burning them in any of Arklow’s several bonfires that raged throughout the May Eve night.
The Celts were but one of many cultures to honor the coming of May with ritual, ceremony, and magick. In fact, the earliest May Day-like celebrations we know of with certainty date all the way back to the time of ancient Rome. The Romans held an annual festival in honor of the goddess Flora at the end of April and beginning of May. In the Republican Era, the six-day festival started on April 27, and under the Julian calendar, it began on April 28. According to Ovid, the first ever Floralia, as the festival was called, was held in 238 BCE to commemorate the founding of the goddess Flora’s temple, built on the advice of an oracle—the Sibylline Books—following a period of harsh drought (Futrell, 25–27). Flora was a goddess of fertility, vegetation, and flowers; a sacred lady in charge of the growing things. One of her monikers was the “Goddess of the Flowering of Plants.” Imported from Greece, she was the Roman equivalent of Chloris, the Greek goddess of flowers.
Myths related to us by Ovid tell the story of Flora’s divine birth. Flora, originally a nymph by the name of Chloris who resided in the heavenly land of Elysium, had gone out for a walk one fine spring day. Her indescribable beauty caught the attentions of Zephyrus, AKA the West Wind. Zephyrus wanted the beautiful nymph and began his pursuit. Chloris ran, but she could not outrun the wind. Chloris struggled, but she was no match for Zephyrus’s strength. He raped her (some accounts tone it down to a kiss), and afterward made her his bride, granting her the title of Flora, goddess of all the flowering plants of the earth.
Other myths relate how Flora once helped the goddess Juno conceive a child by way of a magickal plant. As her myths reveal, Flora was closely associated with sexuality, fertility, and the blossoming of Nature. It was Flora, the myths tell us, who first spread seeds across the originally monochrome earth, causing it to bloom and blossom in an abundance of color and variety.
The Floralia festival held in Flora’s honor included games, mimed performances, revelry, striptease, feasting, dancing, and an atmosphere of sexual liberty, pleasure, and wild abandon. At first, the Floralia was held only occasionally, at times when crops were deemed in danger. By 173 BCE, however, after a time of repeated and frequent crop issues, the Floralia became an annual event, believed to help ensure the favor of the goddess and encourage the fertility of the crops, livestock, and people.
Offerings of flower blossoms were made to Flora, and on the first of May, offerings were given in the name of Maia, a goddess of growth for whom the month of May is named. There was also a ceremony in which a number of hares and goats were released into the community arena to be hunted, the sexually active and ambitious animals believed to symbolize fertility. As another way to increase and encourage fertility, the festival crowd was showered with a barrage of “medals with obscene representations on them,” vetches,2 lupins,3 and various beans all thought to symbolize fertile energies (Fowler, 94).
Flowers were an obvious and prominent feature of the Floralia, with blossoms decorating everything from the feasting tables to the citizenry. Garlands were hung on doors and wreaths of flowers were worn on the heads of the festivalgoers. Images of the goddess Flora were decked out in flower blossoms and carried in procession to the flowering trees.
Though ultimately a serious event expressing great reverence for Flora, the festival had a strong element of fun that predominated it. Lots of wine and lots of boisterous singing and dancing created an atmosphere of raucousness, the noise of which may have been believed to help Nature fully wake up and get energized after a long winter’s slumber. It was customary to wear bright, multicolored clothing as opposed to the usual white. Promiscuity was also encouraged.
On the last day of the festival, a group of prostitutes would gather and perform a striptease in front of an audience. Other entertainments devised for the Floralia were equally exotic. Galba, who served as Roman emperor from 68–69 CE, once hosted a tightrope-walking elephant at the celebration!
As the Roman Empire spread its cultural traditions throughout Europe, many Floralia customs were blended into pre-existing local springtime festivals. Many pre-Christian cultures considered May as the start of the summer season and marked the time with fertility rites and other ceremonious festivity. Over time, what was once sacred ritual became secular celebration, evolving into the local May Day customs that continue to be practiced throughout Europe and America. May Day became a composite of Roman and local tradition, just as our modern celebrations reflect a blending of traditions.
As a celebration of fertility and growth, May Day customs often centered around flowers, greenery, and sexual themes. It was common for young men and women to go into the woods on May Eve, emerging with arms full of foliage in the morning. Flowers and leafy branches were brought back to the village as a token of good will and to bring good luck. Sometimes, the villagers would throw flowers at one another. Boys often fashioned May-gads, wands crafted by stripping the bark off a stick of white willow and affixing some cowslips 4 to the top (Fosbroke, 651).
One once-popular European May Day custom that shows its ancient roots is the May doll. Children would make simple dolls out of natural items, or choose an existing doll, and dress it up with fresh flower blossoms. The May dolls were then paraded through town, just as the Romans carried their decorated image of Floralia through the streets of their Empire so long ago. Sometimes, the May doll was placed amidst a garland of greenery or secured into a structure comprised of two crossed hoops.
Another enduring May Day tradition that gained popularity in many parts of Europe was the May Bush. Usually a small thorn tree, the May Bush was decorated with flowers, ribbons, and brightly painted shells or bits of colorful fabric. There were household May Bushes that were placed outside the home, and there were communal May Bushes located in public common areas. Sometimes the May Bush was paraded around the neighborhood for all to see. Dancing around the May Bush was thought to be an effective means of ensuring good fortune, perhaps a throwback to ancient tree worship reflecting a belief in the magickal power of the residing tree spirit.
In some places, such as Dublin and Belfast, it became tradition for the entire community to decorate their May Bushes together, with neighborhood districts enjoying the friendly competition of attempting to create the best-looking May Bush. The competitive spirit often progressed into mischief, with neighborhood groups often stealing the May Bush of their rivals. The practice became such a problem in some places that in Victorian times, the May Bush was actually outlawed.
Very similar to the May Bush is the Maypole. Generally formed from a tall tree that’s been stripped of its branches, the Maypole has obvious phallic symbolism. Originally decorated with flowers and greenery, the traditional Maypole was a representation of fertile energies and a focal point for springtime celebration. As with the May Bush, the Maypole was often placed at the center of town, and townsfolk often tried to steal the Maypoles of neighboring communities. There was a spirit of friendly competition as everyone vied for the unofficial honor of having the biggest, best Maypoles in the region.
After the Maypole was erected and decorated, dances were held around it in the belief of inviting growth, fertility, and other springtime blessings. In the Victorian period, ribbons came to be an essential part of the Maypole decorations, and Maypole dancing became more elaborate as a result. Dancers would hold the ends of the ribbons and weave around each other in intricate figures, braiding the ribbon around the pole as the dance proceeded.
Maypole dances were once common throughout Europe and eventually migrated to America, with many such celebrations continuing into modern times despite periodic objections. The Puritans once denounced the Maypole as a “heathenish vanity of superstition and wickedness,” and when Thomas Morton erected an eighty-foot-tall Maypole complete with a set of antlers attached to the top on the shores of Boston in 1627, he was soon arrested by the local authorities and denounced as the “Lord of Misrule.” The Maypole custom understandably died down for a time in America after that, but around the time of the Revolutionary War, Maypoles were once again erected as “Liberty Poles” and became the focal point for May Day eve war dances and celebration.
Eventually, Maypoles became common May Day fare in America. At a celebration held in 1833 in Boston, a fifteen-foot-tall Maypole was erected and decorated with evergreens, roses, and garlands. Around the same time, Maypole dancing became popular at women’s colleges, adopted as a means of physical education and a way to support overall good health and fertility. In the early 1900s, Maypole dancing as physical education was introduced to the New York City school system and was soon implemented in other large urban school districts. As a result, the celebration of May Day made great gains in popularity among children. At New York’s fiftieth annual May Day celebration held in 1957, more than 12,000 children took part in the ceremonies that featured multiple Maypoles, all painted a sparkling gold (Lyons, 139–144).
One widespread European May Day tradition that never became very established in America was the crowning of the May Queen, who with her floral crown, clearly bears close resemblance to the goddess Flora, who wore an identical mark of station. The May Queen traditionally wears a white gown, a symbol of purity, and a crown formed of fresh flower blossoms. As the personification of the festival and all it symbolizes, the May Queen is in charge of representing fertility, beauty, and youthfulness. She may be called on to make speeches, lead parades, or perform other related duties according to local custom. Many localities would choose their own May Queen to preside over the May Day festivities, selecting a young maiden on whom to bestow the honor. Sometimes the children present chose the May Queen, and she was generally selected for her beauty, pleasantness, and innocence.
Sometimes, a May King was chosen as well, with some traditions pairing the May Queen with the May King as her consort. This custom may have its roots in more ancient Pagan practice, symbolic of the mythological annual union between goddess and god, and symbolic of the earth’s fertilization and subsequent blossoming due to interaction between the earth and the sun.
The May Queen and May King weren’t the only ones for whom amorous opportunities existed. One custom involved young people going into the forest together on the eve of May Day for the primary purpose of engaging in amorous entertainments. Lovers would hook up in the woods and spend the night together, returning home in the morning with armfuls of fresh greenery with which to decorate the village. In some places, the resulting partnerships were termed Greenwood marriages. Traditionally, the start of May is a popular time for handfasting, and sometimes Greenwood marriages and other pairings were made permanent in an official wedding ceremony. Handfasting might involve binding the couple’s hands together, jumping the broom, or jumping the cauldron.
Another widespread and prominent May Day tradition was the May Basket. On the first of May, children would leave small baskets of flowers, candies, or other goodies on the doorknobs of their friends and neighbors as a token of friendship and goodwill. The custom of leaving May Baskets became quite popular in England, and as the English settled America, the practice came with them. Although prevailing Puritanical viewpoints confined May Day to a fairly secular event in America, the May Basket tradition persisted, only beginning to die out around the mid-twentieth century. A newspaper article from the April 24, 1952, edition of the Prescott Evening Courier relates:
“That old American custom of hanging a May basket on the door of a friend on May Day seems to be dying out. Yet, in the lifetime of most people, it has been more popular than the custom of sending Christmas cards.”
Another European May Day tradition that eventually found its way to America is Morris dancing. Popularly practiced in the late 1700s and mid-1800s in England, Morris dancing was a special figure dance that was often performed in conjunction with May Day celebrations. Dancers often wield props, such as handkerchiefs or sticks, while weaving intricate patterns and creating choreographed figures through their rhythmic steps and movements. Morris dancers traditionally wore costumes consisting of white pants, white shirts, hats decked out with ribbons and flowers, and brass bells attached to their legs, but sometimes other costumes were worn by the dancers chosen to take on special roles in the performance. As a ritual folk dance, Morris dancing often included heavily theatrical elements. One of the dancers might don an animal disguise, and at a certain point in the performance they would act like they were dying. The other dancers would crowd around in attendance, and when the animal-man was inevitably resurrected, they would dance joyfully in celebration. Such performances seem to mimic Nature’s revival and were thought to bring good luck to the community.
Such magickal and theatrical elements reflect Morris dancing’s association with the mummers play, another sort of ritualistic performance that was also incorporated into European seasonal celebrations. The basic framework for the mummers play generally featured a hero or a champion who was slain in a fight then brought back to life by an attending doctor. Mummers plays are believed to have their roots in the custom of “momerie” that dates back as early as the thirteenth century. Groups of masked revelers, called “mummers,” would travel in silence from house to house, entering the home to dance or play a game of dice, all the while remaining completely speechless. Over time, as “momerie” blended into and merged with other cultural practices, the full-fledged mummers play developed. With its basic theme of death and resurrection, the mummers play became a fitting accompaniment for agriculturally themed celebrations such as May Day.
Many European May Day celebrations still include heavily theatrical elements such as the mummers play or the Morris dance, complete with a full cast of characters acting out significant aspects of springtime myth. English villages such as Somerset and Padstow celebrate May Day with a mummers play featuring a hobbyhorse or a pair of hobbyhorses in the starring role. The hobbyhorses are usually men dressed in masks and holding stick ponies between their legs. Skirting is added to conceal the stick, so that it appears like the hobbyhorse is a full-bodied animal. In places where two hobbyhorses are used, the horses often take on the roles of summer and winter. The summer hobbyhorse and the winter hobbyhorse act out mock battles, with the summer horse always eventually prevailing.
In Padstow, there was originally only one hobbyhorse, called the “old ’oss” or “old horse.” In the 1840s, bystanders would sometimes be smeared with lamp black or soot by the “old ’oss” as part of the festivities, and it was believed to bring good luck to touch the hobbyhorse’s tar-stained, sailcloth skirts. As part of the play act, the “old ’oss” would feign death, only to get back up, resurrected and reenergized in an apparent imitation of springtime renewal. A second horse was added to the Padstow celebration at the time of World War I. Donning patriotic colors and decked out with springtime blossoms, this horse is called the “peace ’oss,” or “peace horse.” The “peace horse,” taking on the role of summer, canters around the festivalgoers searching for a mate. An atmosphere of fun prevails as the horse “captures” women, bringing them under the skirts of the horse costume. If so captured, it was once believed, the woman could expect to become pregnant within the year.
The hobbyhorses aren’t the only characters in the May Day cast. Many mummers plays or Morris dancing theatrics also featured a Fool or a Teaser and a handful of other personalities whose connections to springtime rites are seldom remembered. Robin Hood and Maid Marian, for instance, whose best-known myths center on forbidden love and robbing the rich to give to the poor, were central figures at English May Day celebrations in the medieval and Tudor periods. Clad in green, Robin Hood became a symbol of the light, warmth, and luscious foliage of summer, the hero come to bring redemption out of the depths of winter’s darkness and lack. Maid Marian, who accompanied Robin Hood as a central character at many May Day celebrations, took on the role of a sort of May Queen or Lady of the May, a beautiful maiden come to usher in the warmer season. As traditional Morris dancing didn’t allow for female dancers, Maid Marian was often played by a man in cross-dress. Maid Marian may have her origins in a French tale about a shepherdess and her lover, who incidentally happened to be a shepherd named Robin.
There’s also the Jack in the Green, a living, breathing personification of a forest god or nature spirit come to deliver humankind from the cold season. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, May Day celebrations in England often included a Jack in the Green who would don a conical framework that was covered completely in foliage, concealing most of his body in a mass of vegetation. The Jack in the Green character was expected to be loud, drunk, and raucous, and as such, the character fell out of favor in the more prudish and proper Victorian period.
Although the European population was largely Christianized by the time the mummers play and the Morris dance became established, these folk traditions continued to reflect much older Pagan elements, alluding to themes of Nature’s annual cycles of death, resurrection, and fertility.
Another May celebration worthy of note is Walpurgis Night, a Germanic festival held April 30 or May 1 throughout much of Central and Northern Europe. The earliest mention of Walpurgis Night is found in a 1603 edition of a text called the Calendarium Perpetuum by Johann Coler, but the holiday likely has earlier origins. Essentially a spring celebration marking the end of winter, Walpurgis Night is named after a female English missionary who was canonized on May 1, 870 CE, as Saint Walpurga. Because of the date of her canonization, Saint Walpurga became associated with May rites and traditions, and the eve before May Day came to be known as Walpurgis Night, or Walpurgisnacht in the German and Dutch. Walpurgis Night was celebrated with bonfires, dancing, and rituals intended to ward off malicious witchcraft and other perceived threats. It was a time when witches were believed to gather on hilltops to light fires and usher in the arrival of spring. In some places, Walpurgis Night was celebrated as the “burning of the witches.” Faux “witches” made from cloth and straw, or sometimes broomsticks, were thrown into the bonfires and burned. This custom was intended to bring a symbolic end to the winter while at the same time effectively banishing evil or supernatural influences that might otherwise cause harm.
In Sweden, Walpurgis Night is celebrated as Valborg, and it’s traditionally marked with dancing, singing, bonfires, and trick-or-treating. One very old Swedish custom rarely practiced in modern times was for young people to go to the woods at twilight to gather greenery and branches that were later brought back to the village and placed on homes as decoration. The party would sing songs, and the householders were expected to pay for the unsolicited service with eggs.
Throughout the ages, early May rituals and traditions have blended, creating a garden of possibility and a rich tapestry of eclectic customs. Beltane is a celebration of fertility and growth and of the sun’s increasing warmth and light. The ancients found a plethora of ways to honor the holiday through rituals, magick, and many other means. We modern Pagans can enjoy even greater diversity as our Beltane represents a conglomeration of the May-tide wisdom that’s accumulated over thousands of years. Celebrating the coming of May is tradition, even when we make those traditions our own.