Beltane Celebration Ideas

Tomorrow (1st May) is Beltane, the 3rd spring festival and the start of the summer season. It can also be celebrated today (30th April). Interestingly I just watched an episode of The X-Files last night where the sabbats were mentioned, and Beltane was referred to as "Roodmas" and celebrated on 30th April. (Note: This episode doesn't cast witches/magic practitioners in a good light but there is one good witch!) Roodmas is apparently an old English word that means "Mass of the Cross" and it was celebrated as an attempt to diminish paganism! So maybe it's an alternative name. Witches of The Craft refers to it as the Christian term for Old Rood Day.

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere you're about to have Samhain. Have a good one! )


Following on from my Oestara Celebration Ideas post, here is one for Beltane. :)

First of all here are some links with more info about this festival:

http://www.priestesstraining.com/beltaine-sex-goddess-love/

http://www.pennilesspagan.com/2017/04/5-ways-to-celebrate-beltane.html

https://tesswhitehurst.com/5-ways-to-celebrate-beltane-in-5-minutes-or-less/

http://tesswhitehurst.com/4-unique-little-ideas-for-your-beltane-celebration/

A good way to celebrate is to read about/research goddesses and gods associated with this time of year. Since the main focus of Beltane is the God maturing into young adulthood and mating with the Goddess, you could think about sacred sex. For more on the Goddess and the Green Man you might like to read this post: https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/blog/beltane-april-30---may-1

 
Freya (or Freyja) is a goddess I'm drawn to and as mentioned in the Priestess Training post above, she is a good deity to connect with this time of year because she's a Goddess of Love. You can read more about her at the links below:

https://skjalden.com/freya/

http://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/freya/who-is-freya.html


I also like No.5 (Engage in a pleasure ritual) in Tess Whitehurst's 5 Ways to Celebrate Beltane in 5 Minutes or Less. Think I'll try mindfully eating a bit of my favourite chocolate! Tess also has a good post about love spells for Beltane: http://tesswhitehurst.com/4-beltane-love-spells/

Update 25/4/22: The Tess Whitehurst post above now redirects to a different love spells post.

 

I'm going to celebrate tomorrow by making guacamole and having it with salad like I did last year. The recipe is from Sorya's book The Kitchen Witch. After re-reading the book I was also inspired to make some biscuits which I'm going to do later today. I think I'll put vanilla in them which is good for attracting love, appropriate for this time of year! I'll share more about my Beltane celebrations next week. :)

The weather is feeling more spring like since Oestara and there have been some lovely blossom trees. The photo at the top of the post is one I took at Buckingham Park earlier this month. I wasn't able to get to Hove Park  (my favourite park) recently but here's a post from 2014 which shows a blossom tree: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/05/hove-park-in-spring.html

There's a hawthorn tree outside my house and I like to watch it through the year and seasons. It blossoms during May and June (beautiful dark pink blossom) and I think there are a few on it already. The hawthorn has magical associations of protection and cleansing and also has links with Beltane/May Day. The blossoms are more often white but some are pink. For more on it check out these links:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/hawthorn/

http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Hawthorn.htm



Despite the weather improving recently it's been quite a dull, rainy day today! lol. And last night was chilly. I'm looking forward to better weather as we move more into spring and summer.

Tomorrow is also May Day (1st May) and a Bank Holiday Monday here in England. We have May fairs here and when I was little we danced around the Maypole at my first (primary) school. One year I was one of the May Queen's attendants, lol.


Happy Beltane and May Day! :)



Photo: Copyright Moonsparkle 2017.