Get ready to celebrate the bright half of the year. This is the time to make merry! Beltane is a Celtic festival celebrating the abundance and fertility of life and the imagination. It is a glorious time when everything bursts into life, and we celebrate the joining of male and female energies. Maypoles and bonfires are often part of traditional celebrations.
This is the time of year when people throughout the ages have said goodbye to the cold of winter and begun preparation for planting, looking forward to the longer, warmer days ahead. In many parts of the country, Beltane will be especially welcome this year after one of the coldest winters on record!
Beltane presents an opportunity to reflect on our life experiences, and use the wisdom we have gained as Crones to think about what we want to create in our lives now.
Beltane Poem
Beltaine Fire and Beltaine Blood
Bless us now with all that’s good
Winter’s bleak time now is past
Springtime has begun at last.
Goddess Great as Crone and Queen
All Her brightest praises sing
Maiden. Mother, Goddess She
All the greatest blessings be.
Take all that now is naught but blight
And fill us all with Your delight
Burn away the dross and chaff
Renew us with Your hearty laugh
Sing and dance and beat the drums
From Her Bounty all good comes
Weeping, moaning, go away
Blessings from Her come our way
Beltaine Fire and Beltaine Blood
Bless us now with all that’s good
Winter’s Bleak time now is done
Welcome Springtime, now begun!
– Ryllwynn
May Day Celebrations
In Massachussetts, a variety of events are scheduled to greet the season:
• The Newtowne Morris Dancers will meet on May 1st at dawn at the Weeks Footbridge near Harvard Square for Maypole dancing and singing.
• The Women’s Lodge will have their Beltane Fire on May 3 at the Hale reservation from 7-10 PM which will include meditation and fire gazing.
• Earth Spirit Eastern Massachusetts will host a Beltane Ritual on May 3 including an annual cleanup and Maypole circle.
Check listings in your area for celebrations that you might want to attend.
Carla Gomez, Communications
Melody Lee, Karen Edwards, and Dorothy Emerson, co-creators
