Pagan holidays - Beltane

Beltane (sometimes spelled Beltane) is a Celtic festival celebrated at dawn on May 1st, symbolizing the onset of summer This word is used to name the month of May in some Gaelic languages: Irish, Scottish The exact translation is “Fire of Bel”, which is directly related to the name of the main Celtic god of the Sun and fire, and, accordingly, fertility Beltane is one of the eight most significant pagan holidays, characterizing the beginning of the agricultural period, and included in the Wheel of the Year This is a closed cycle of holidays, condemned by the Christian religion, which has tried to get rid of everything pagan as much as possible With the advent of Christianity, Beltane was replaced by a church holiday - Walpurgis Night Many traditions and rituals have been preserved, for example, lighting fires, but the meaning has changed dramatically - instead of worshiping Mother Nature, it symbolized a witch hunt, the expulsion of wickedness The wheel of the year allowed ancient people to express respect for nature and glorify the constant flow of time and life itself The end of the winter period and the celebration of summer included mandatory ritual ceremonies aimed at preserving crops and livestock - the main sources of the community’s well-being Over the course of several days, brushwood was collected for two large fires located on the nearest hill or hill The ceremony was carried out by Celtic priests - Druids, in which all residents of the settlements participated The night before, they climbed these hills with their livestock and waited for the first rays of the sun to light the ritual fire Pagan traditions included solemn sacred chants and dances praising the gods It was imperative that cattle were driven through the fires, which were considered sacred, to ensure protection from pestilence The indispensable attributes of the Celtic festival were the May Bough and the May Bush, associated with the rites of the Druids and being the prototypes of the modern May tree The rituals emphasized that it was with the onset of Beltane that a new, annual union of earth and sun was formed, giving rise to the growth of the harvest Currently, the holiday has preserved traditions as much as possible only in some rural areas of modern Europe, but attention to it is gaining momentum, especially to ritualism and semantic load The search for oneself and one’s “I” leads modern people, tired of information flows, to a simple and understandable religion of nature, the worship of its spirits Paganism, along with Islam and Christianity, undoubtedly has the right to exist In any case, Beltane marks the arrival of the warm season and is filled with bright energy