Beltane 2024

The other week it was Beltane (Wednesday 1st May). I normally make salads for this sabbat and this year, as mentioned in my Salads for Beltane post, I made one of my favourites, kachumbari (Kenyan tomato and onion salad). The recipe I like to use is from Precious Core: https://www.preciouscore.com/kachumbari/

I had it for my lunch with some shop bought food, chicken drumsticks, tortilla chips, guacamole and bread rolls. Here's a pic: 

 

I also had some diet lemonade (I wanted to get elderflower or lemonade but thy only had diet lemonade at Tesco!). I forgot to put it in the fridge before making lunch though, so didn't drink it till later.

The evening before ("Beltane Eve or the start of Beltane) I went to the beach for sunset. It was a gentler sunset and also, I couldn't see some of the stronger colours from the beach like I can other times. Last Beltane's was better. Never mind, at least it was nice weather On Beltane itself and the days following it, the weather was rainy and/or dull. Here are a couple of photos:

Sunset on Lancing Beach.

 

I normally light a candle for Beltane (usually white) because it's a fire festival. This year I decided to take one with me to the beach and lighter it there at sunset, for a change. (If you do something similar please check local fire regulations, be safe etc.) Unfortunately it wouldn't light because the wind was too strong! So I just took a picture and lit it when I got home. 

Here's my picture from the beach:

So on Beltane we reached the middle of spring and now we're moving towards late spring and the start of  summer. While the days have been getting longer and light since Oestara/Ostara aka the Spring Equinox in March, it's in April and May that you really start to notice a difference (at least here in the UK.) It's been getting warmer lately, around 23C (72F) in Sussex, which is the hottest it's been this spring and hotter than last year.

The next sabbat will be Litha/the Summer Solstice (20th June this year) and the "official" start of summer.  I'll do a post about my celebrations and perhaps another post with ideas for celebrating beforehand, if I feel inspired to. (I have written several in-depth posts in the past.) Maybe something like my Salads for Belane post that I wrote for 2024 (see below).

Hope you had a good Beltane! (Or hope you had a good Samhain!) :) 

P.S. At the end of April I did a post sharing some salad recipes for Beltane (plus some extra ideas). They would also be good to make during the rest of spring and for Litha/the summer, so I thought I'd share it:

Salads for Beltane + Extra Ideas!  https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/04/salads-for-beltane-extra-ideas.html

 

Or if its autumn where you are, you might like this baking post (written for Madron/Mabon):

Baking for Madron + Extra Ideas!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/09/baking-for-madron-extra-ideas.html