Beltane, also known as Mayday, is a cross-quarter holiday taking place at the half way point between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice on May 1st in the Gregorian calendar, or during the Full Moon in Scorpio (also known as Lunar Beltane). There are many traditional ways of celebrating this time of year, but my favorite ways to celebrate are simply expressing wonder and gratitude for the blossoming earth. After winter and early spring, Beltane is a time when flowers are beginning to emerge in full force. One sweet way that I celebrated Beltane as a child was creating small paper wrapped flower bouquets and hanging them on the doorknobs of friends’ front doors, claiming the bouquets were from the fairies.
Beltane is a time closely related to the Fae, the Fairy, the Faery because it is the time where the fairies emerge back into the earthly world. Who are the Fae you may ask? Everyone has their own relationship to these winged wee ones, but for me the fairies are magical small playful energy beings who delight in the sweet things of this world. That’s why they tend to emerge on Beltane, because finally there is the food for them to thrive on in this world again. They eat flowers and nectar and sunlight and honey. The Fae are also the tenders of the Otherworld, the place of mist and magic, where many shamanic healings and meditative journeys take place. I’ll be sharing more about my relationship with the Fae in a different article. On the eve of Beltane a doorway is said to emerge under a lone Hawthorn Tree at twilight, and fairies dance from under this doorway portal onto the Earth.
From Beltane to Samhain (closely related to Halloween) the fairies dance around the earth, playing games, laughing, encouraging merriment and sometimes playing harmless tricks on the humans who have a tendency to take life a little too seriously.
Thus, Beltane is a Portal, a doorway, an opening where our childlike wonder and excitement can re-emerge again after the cold hibernating winter months. Beltane is a time when the flowers are being pollinated by the birds, bees, butterflies. It’s also traditionally known as a time of great fertility and sexual expression. I believe Beltane to be a wonderful fertile time to celebrate our dreams, to celebrate the blooming of our inner-gardens. The time of blooming proceeds the time of harvest, but the blooming is reminding us all the work that was put in to nourishing the soil, planting the seeds, protecting and caring for the little sprouts have yielded the first flowers. And from here on out, there is a little less work involved as the plants are now reaching up towards the sunlight and strong enough to be growing towards this sunlight on their own. Now there is a little more faith in the natural world to be doing her thing, as we weed, clearing out and continuing to allow for the space of growth. We also water, supporting the flow of the growth.
The Portal of Beltane allows one to quickly change and embody their dreams. For a Portal is an opening, a sudden shift in consciousness and in knowing that brings about a different reality. A Portal is as tangible as choosing your thoughts and stepping into a more heart-centered and expanded vision of reality. A portal is as mysterious as a shifting into another reality and world all together, allowing one to access completely different ways of thinking and being that support and illuminate current goals.
Beltane is a celebration, a time to embrace all the inner work and dreaming that happened over the darker, hibernating time of year, and into the outward, expressive time of year. I usually don’t fully feel that energy and lightness of summer until Beltane. And this feeling is exactly what I celebrate during Beltane rituals. I am a big supporter of celebrating holidays in ways that feel right for you. For me, although I’ve celebrated in traditional ways of dancing in community, singing songs and sharing a skinny dip! Dropping flowers off anonymously at friend’s doors, or simply spending time out in nature. I also celebrate in ways that feel exciting and right for me, because each year I feel a little bit different.
Here are some ways to celebrate Beltane and this fertile, abundant time of year:
Spend some time out in nature
Create some art related to what you are hoping to harvest this year and share with your friends
Tend to your garden or an outdoor space
Celebrate the flowers that are blooming in your area
Make and share brunch/lunch with friends—going around sharing something that each person is celebrating
Have a ritual with your friends
Dance! Alone, with friends, with the fairies!
Listen to the bird song or go out bird watching
Celebrate the pollinators by making some tea sweetened with honey and sharing a splash with the earth
Fill up your hummingbird feeders with extra sweet sugar water and hang them up for the year
Create an outdoor altar celebrating the fairies
Follow your heart and celebrate in whatever ways feels right for you. By simply taking a breath outside you are filling your lungs with the wisdom from the trees and plants. Their exhale is our inhale and if you open yourself up to listen to the wisdom from within, it will rise and you will know exactly how you want to celebrate this delicious time. Blessed Beltane! Blessed is this Earth. Blessed are we to get to place our bare soles on the body of the Earth. Blessed are we to be Alive!
