Beltane ~ The Festival of Fertility!

The seasonal festivals seem to be passing me by a bit this year, I haven't had the time to put much effort into them. I usually like to plan ahead a little and arrange some kind of ritual, we generally have a few traditions we like to acknowledge, but before I'm aware of it, the day is upon us and I've forgotton to buy food or invite anyone to come and join in the fun! We celebrate Beltane on the 1st of May, but made it the 2nd this year as we had invited a friend over on that day, and it seemed to make sense to have a lil' knees up then...The word Beltane is Gaelic for bright fire, and fire has always been a part of this festival, to leap the Beltane fire is to take the flame into yourself, giving thanks for life. (Usually I mark out a little labyrinth in the garden with string and have a small fire burning in my lovely little pot bellied cauldron at the centre, we then take it in turns to walk the labyrinth and jump the flames - not this year, ho-hum...) It is the festival of the union between the Green Man of the Wildwood and the fertile Goddess: in bygone days couples would head to the woods on May's Eve for passionate trysts to ensure these ancient forces were honoured, and the land (and they themselves, presumably!) would remain fertile.

Like Halloween (exactly 6 months from now) Beltane Eve is said to be a time when the veil between worlds in thin, and ghosts and faerie folk wander freely! Where Halloween is the festival of death and mourning, Beltane is all about the celebration of life, it is a time for being joyous and spending time with friends, family and lovers, a time to enjoy sensual pleasures and remember you're alive. The Feast I prepare for this festival is very simple, and actually one of my favourites...The starter is a jumbled mixture of finger foods: olives, thick grilled slices of halloumi, slivers of salty cured meats, anything nibbly and best served drizzled with a gorgeous basil infused olive oil! I love the sensual nature of food eaten with your hands, if you can feed it to your loved one, all the better! The main course is steak (my personal preference being rib-eye, served rare, there is something wonderfully primal about rare meat which for me seems to be perfect for this particular celebration...) served with warm wilted spinach and new potatoes all served drenched in melted butter and lots of ground black pepper. YUMMY. Dessert is chilli chocolate mousse, fiery and sweet. Chocolate was believed by the Aztecs to be a powerful aphrodisiac (the reason why to this day, it is still the favoured gift for men to bestow upon their lady friends!) and is proven to contain feel-good substances, which is more than enough reason for me to feel it should be included in my Beltane menu! One of my favourite traditions is the bowl of May wine we prepare and drink. For every bottle of aromatic white wine (gewurztraminer or something similar is always a winner for me, but as you're going to add things to it, there's no real need to go too fancy) add a handful of lightly squished strawberries and 12 springs of sweet woodruff, one for every month of the year. Woodruff was a damn hard thing to find, we discovered years ago when I first decided to incorporate May wine into our celebrations, but if you can find it, it's well worth growing, and once you've planted it, it'll pretty much take over if you let it, so you'll never be short of it! It's a plant that has a habit of flowering on or around May day, and the flowers have a lovely and distinctive fragrance, which is truly beautiful in the wine and strawberry concoction, and is always associated with this time of year for me.



Traditional symbols and associated bits and bobs...

Colours: green

Flowers: apple and hawthorn blossoms, dandelions

Gods/Goddess: Pan, any maiden/mother Goddess

Symbols: maypoles, flowers, ribbons, leaf masks

Foods: May wine, honey, aphrodisiac yummies