An Irish Beltaine

[Morr]

So this is my first year out of my family's house so I can really get a good party going with Beltaine!

Or rather, do it in a more traditional Irish way, and not have to keep things down to a candle and a few prayers in the privacy of my own room.

This year, I have access to a fire pit, so I intend on having a little bonfire. I'll probably go out and buy some flowers, and prepare some traditional Beltaine prayers and offerings for my Gods and for the fae.

Now, all I can find online are mostly links and details of celebrating Beltaine with a Wiccan twist to it.

I was wondering if anyone has a more traditional Irish way of doing things. I have the CR FAQ page down with the details of Beltaine, but I was wondering about possible traditional Irish food and offerings I can make, creating specific crafts for Beltaine (my husband will most likely be with me that night, and possibly a few friends), and maybe some proper Irish folk stories?

I have Irish resources, I am just wondering is anyone has something more Beltaine appropriate without the neo-Pagan type Wiccan twist to it.



Thanks!

[Faol-chù]

Apparently, Iris leaves (specifically iris pseudacorus) were picked and 'placed on doorsteps and window sills or used to decorate the dresser, although the plant is not yet in flower in the area until late May'. (That area being County Cork.) (These were also apparently put in fishing boats 'for luck' in other places.)

Branches of 'newly leafed trees' were picked and brought into the house. This verse was said:

Cuileann agus coll,
Trom agus carthan
Agus fuinseog gheal
O bheal an atha.

(Holly and hazel, elder and rowan, and bright ash from beside the ford.)

Also...

pg. 102

'On May eve some young person of both sexes are still in the habit of gathering Mayflowers (Caltha palustris) in the meadows which they carry home and strew outside their doors the same evening. Of the origin of this custom their traditions furnish them with no account, but the writer is of opinion they are of the remains of the Roman Florialia; for on May day, in the adjoining parts of the County of Louth the figure of a female is made-up, fixed upon a short pole and dressed in a fantastic manner, with flowers, ribbons, etc.

'This figure they call "The May Baby" but it is probable that at its first exhibitition that it was made to represent Flora, the Goddess of flowers, and also of fecundity. Around this figure a man and woman (generally his wife) of the humble class, dressed also fantastically with straw etc. dance to the sound of a fiddle and entertain the people with indecent shows and postures, the figure at the same time being kept moving by the rustic maiden that supports it These exhibitions cause great merriment among the assembled populace; women who have no children to their husbands also attend (some of them from a considerable distance) to see this figure and exhibition, which they imagine will promote fruitfulness in them and cause them to have children. Money is always collected at the end of this pantomime, and the exhibitors and musicians, attended by a concourse of people, proceed to gentlemen's houses with the figure where they also get money. When all is collected and the actors and musicians received some remunerations, the remainder is laid out in drink and the evening passes jovially.'

Giving gifts of decorated balls...
There is much detail in there from several sources.

Collecting dew on Beltaine morning...described as 'a medicine and to aid beauty...

"The young woman who washed her face gained a fair complexion, whereas if she were daring ehough to undress and roll naked in the dew she was given great beauty of person."

And then there are a few evil uses mentioned.

(The entire section on May Day is quite extensive.)

[skilly-nilly]

When my children were little we would make construction-paper baskets with flowers (usually garden-center pansies since we live in a cold climate but there was one year the violets were blooming by May-Day) and leave them outside friends' doors, ring the doorbell, and run away, giggling.

You could give flowers to your friends, as a more adult way of celebrating.

You could have flower salad!!

[_Banbha_]

Faol-chù referenced from a great book which I'd highly recommend as well. :)

A fire on the beach is essential for my Beltaine celebration. I enjoy a night with friends and simple faire where stories are told and a good time is had. I don't ascribe to the contemporary idea of Beltaine or any festival being one day the exact Julian calender day and have a private fire as well, more observant and with carefully chosen bits of wood I collect from the woods nearby. I save some charcoal to burn throughout the year. I also put my own dried flowers and resins in the fire.

The festival of Beltaine was according to Michael Dames research in _Mythic Ireland_ speaks of the sacred fires centered at Uisnech at Beltaine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uisneach):

As the May-Eve twilight dropped into true blackness, we may suppose the bonfire lit at Uisnech, and believed to be supernatural, initiated the far flung circles of fire. Through them them the goddess occupied and SAW her whole land, and by the embers promised to return the next day with an entire summer's sunshine.

Old Irish suil means "eye" and "sun". So, in a word the gap between human subject and divine object disappears as a light-beam enters the eyeball. Suil, the divine intelligence, integrates with the eyes on earth of bird and beast and humankind and thereby enters the brain and heart. This is a typical mythic perception, where phenomena become distinct nd separate only to reunite in a god-given word. No wonder the population stumbled up mountains through the gathering darkness to have this fortune visibly confirmed. There they heard the crackle of yellow furze turn briefly orange as it leapt above the winter world of grey and black ash, to usher in the first dawn of summer. (The Vita Tripartita expressly states that every hearth fire in Ireland was quenched. This imposed darkness further served to focus attention on Uisnech, from where, it was hoped the sacred gift would rise again, later in the night).

The divinity of the fire-eye was confirmed in the 9th century CE by Cormac.....What emerges is an integration of the elemental fire and the divine eye.....
.....Stokes found Aine to be the goddess of Beltaine.

It goes on to explain about the sacred site of Uisnech which is at the Mid or center of Ireland as the 'Fifth' Provence.

Here's an article that references Dames' work, and the Rees brothers too, on this:
The Fifth Direction: Sacred centres in Ireland (http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/5dirns.htm). They take the cosmology further than I would but I think it's interesting none the less.

Another article: Kindling the Sacred Fire. (http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/337118)

I don't remember the exact name but there is a fire society in Ireland that is dedicated to the tradition of fires at Beltaine on hilltops through out the country like the olden days. :hahugh:

Here's some more general "Celtic" on-line reading without the dread wiccan slant (nothing personal Wiccans):
Celtic Well: Beltaine (http://www.applewarrior.com/celticwell/ejournal/beltane/)
Clannada: Beltaine (http://www.clannada.org/bof_beltaine.php)

[Meadhbh]

When my children were little we would make construction-paper baskets with flowers (usually garden-center pansies since we live in a cold climate but there was one year the violets were blooming by May-Day) and leave them outside friends' doors, ring the doorbell, and run away, giggling.

You could give flowers to your friends, as a more adult way of celebrating.

You could have flower salad!!

We did that to. Also we made chains of daisies and other flowers that would help to keep away the fae. Which works out well because May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.

[Nitefalle]

Hey Morr, how did your Beltaine go?