Twenty Beltane Activities For The Start Of Summer

Twenty Beltane Activities.

As the counterpoint to Samhain on the Pagan Wheel of the Year Beltane is a very important festival; and heralds the beginning of summer. There are many activities that you can do therefore to celebrate the returning of the light and the warming of our days. Many of these activities are suitable for all the family to take part in, children and adults alike will enjoy celebrating Beltane and the coming of the summer. Some are craft activities but you do not need to be artistic to give these easy projects a go! If you have any others that you can add to this list then please let me know!

Attend a maypole dance. If you check near you there are quite possibly some maypole dances happening on Beltane or May Day. A maypole dance is fabulous to either take part in or to watch; the red and white ribbons symbolizing the intertwining of female and male energy.

Plait your own maypole ribbons. You can achieve the same union of energies by plaiting red and white ribbons and using these to decorate your home. You may like to use red white and blue or black to symbolize the mother maiden and crone aspects of the triple Goddess.

Gather morning dew in a jar at sunrise. It is said to have healing powers. Bathing your face in the morning dew is said to ensure your retain your beauty.

Re-visit any new plans that you started at Oestara and consider what is needed now to bring those plans to fruition.

Attend a Pagan Beltane event. Many groups now have public ceremonies on the major

Sabbats. These events that are open to the public are open to all and everyone is made to feel welcome. You don't need to be a Pagan to join in either if this is the first such event you have attended. It is all about honouring the cycles of nature. In England there are major celebrations at Glastonbury and Thornborough Henge. If anyone knows of a celebration happening near them then please feel free to comment at the end of the page and I will include it in the post.

Here are details of the events at the Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury Beltane at Chalice Well Gardens and Thornborough Henge Beltane at Thornborough, also the Cotswold Order of Druids post events here: Beltane in the Cotswolds

Make some Elderflower Champagne. The recipe for this delicious drink may be found here:

elderflower champagne Collect blossom from trees and local flowers that are in season and decorate your home or your altar with them. Filling a cauldron or a large bowl with fresh flowers is a lovely way to celebrate Beltaine

Make a Beltane head-dress, I will be putting a post on how to easily do this shortly.

Make a Green man mask. Firstly cut out a mask shape with holes for the eyes and mouth. Then start with a circle of leaves, glue them down around the outside and gradually build up layers as you move into the middle of the circle and the whole of the face is covered. You can use real leaves for this or cut some out of green paper or felt. Make a Beltane circlet for the top of the mayplole or to hang on your front door.

Make or buy a Beltane charm and hang it up in your home. You can do this quite simply with coloured ribbons and perhaps and beads or buttons that you might have. A beautiful Beltain charm with a murano glass heart may be found here:http://www.astarte-moon.co.uk/shop/

Beltane Charm

Make a herb sachet. Herbal sachets also make wonderful gifts that are easy for children to make. Take a small square or round piece of light fabric, and put some dried herbs in the centre. You may like to use rosemary or lavender for a lovely smelling bundle that can be hung up in a wardrobe. Gather up the edges and tie it closed with a ribbon in Beltane colours.

Get creative with face painting. You can transform you and your loved ones into Greenmen and women! If you don't want to paint your whole face green simple spirals drawn on with eye-liner can look just as effective.

Make a dish of fruits, berries, nuts and leave in the wood for the animals and fae folk to enjoy

Braid bracelets out of red and white ribbons or red white and blue for the triple Goddess and give them as gifts to friends or family

Create your own Bel-fire by lighting a large red candle and dropping into it dried rosemary, lavender or rose petals. As you do so think about what your heart desires over the coming months and give thanks for all that you have in your life.

Visit a local sacred well or other water.

Have a plant swap with friends bringing some lovely variety to your home and garden.

Leave baskets of goodies on your friends' doorsteps. They may think that the faeries have left them if you don't let them in on the secret!

Decorate a tree in your garden or your local park with ribbons representing your wishes on them or those loved ones that you want to mention in your prayers

Photography AstarteAlison

A Ceremony for Every Occasion: Siusaidh Ceanadach

Sacred Celebrations: Glennie Kindred Llewellyn's 2012 Sabbats Almanac

Wheel of the Year ;Pauline CampanelliThe Sacred Wheel: a guide to the Pagan year for beginners in Witchcraft and Wicca.MommaWhiteCougar The Pagan

A CEREMONY FOR EVERY OCCASION: THE PAGAN WHEEL OF THE YEAR AND RITES OF PASSAGE [PAPERBACK]

Siusaidh CeanadacPagan in the City: Cassandra EassonThe Complete Book of Magic and Ritual ; Cassandra Easson

Paganblog 2013 Entry 4 Balefire

Balefire is a Beltane tradition. It started in Ireland where municipal legislature would go to Uisneach escalation and light a fire. Along with each of the legislature at hand would light a torch and sluice it back to the villages that they came from. Subsequently they reached their kinship each personal would come and light a torch from the farm out and light the hearths in their homes with it. It was a way to intensify the fire of Ireland all outstanding the citizens.

Scotland had a fresh tradition. They would light two fires, and herd all the pigs among them for protection and decontamination of the herd. It was assumed to bring good luck.

A balefire can in the same way be second hand as a signaling flare.

The Merriam-Webster Vocabulary defines a balefire as a funeral fire.

Several modern day Pagans use a balefire for Beltane and the word "Beltane" is utmost expected derived from this tradition. It is a celebration for the impressive community to sing, dance around, do magic, and make a lot of love.

I confine second hand balefires to banish, to purify, and to protect. Consistently I dry spiritual leader or sweetgrass inside the fires, unhappy with wood that I tinkle painstaking too.

Credit: new-generation-witch.blogspot.com

Samhain Meaning And History

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain

(pronounced sow-in). It is the time between Samhain (pronounced "Sow-in"

in Ireland, Sow-een in Wales, "Sav-en" in Scotland or even "Sam-haine" in

non-Gaelic speaking countries) and Brigid's Day "the period of little

sun." Thus, Samhain is often named the "Last Harvest" or "Summer's End".

The Earth nods a sad farewell to the God.

Symbolism of Samhain - Third Harvest, the Dark Mysteries, Rebirth through

Death.

Symbols of Samhain - Gourds, Apples, Black Cats, Jack-O-Lanterns, Besoms.

Herbs of Samhain - Mugwort, Allspice, Broom, Catnip, Deadly Nightshade,

Mandrake, Oak leaves, Sage and Straw.

Foods of Samhain - Turnips, Apples, Gourds, Nuts, Mulled Wines, Beef,

Pork, Poultry.

Incense of Samhain - Heliotrope, Mint, Nutmeg.

Colors of Samhain - Black, Orange, White, Silver, Gold.

Stones of Samhain - All Black Stones, preferably jet or obsidian.

We know that He will once again be reborn of the

Goddess and the cycle will continue. This is the time of reflection, the

time to honor the Ancients who have gone on before us and the time of

'Seeing" (divination). As we contemplate the Wheel of the Year, we come to

recognize our own part in the eternal cycle of Life.

While almost all Celtic based traditions recognize this Holiday as the end

of the "old" year, some groups do not celebrate the coming of the New Year

until Yule. Some consider the time between Samhain and Yule as a time

which does not even exist on the Earthly plane. The "time which is no

time" was considered in the old days to be both very Magickal and very

dangerous. Even today, we celebrate this holiday with a mixture of joyous

celebration and 'spine tingling" reverence.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the

United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their New Year on November

1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the

dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human

death.

Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between

the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed

that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. In addition to causing

trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the

otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to

make predictions about the future.

For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these

prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the

long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druid priests built huge sacred bonfires,

where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the

Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of

animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they

had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help

protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the

course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two

festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic

celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally

commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor

Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this

celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for

apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands.

In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st 'All

Saints' Day', a time to honor saints and martyrs.

It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the

Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.

The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle

English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the

night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually,

Halloween.

Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day,

a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big

bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and

devils.

Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and

All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Halloween is the eve of Hallowmas, better know to modern Christians as All

Saints' Day. Hallowmas celebrates God's harvesting into heaven the

faithful of every age, culture and walk of life. It is a day of glorious

rejoicing.

Saints are people who, by their joyful service, have extended the love of

God to others. The martyrologies, the list of the saints officially

honored by the church, contains over 10,000 names - and those are only the

saints we know of.

All Saints' Day also remembers those holy people whom no one but God any

longer knows. The reading for the day from Revelation describes a great

multitude that no one can count.

About

Band 1, Msg#162, Apr-05-96 21:54 PM
From: Theophenie Settell
To: Bob Albert
Subject: Ciao...

Paganism/Wicca is a nature-based polytheistic religion, dating back to WAY former Christianity. We in essence contain in a God and a God(the God self a three-fold God(Maiden/Mother/Crone), and the God self also three- cut(Undeveloped Man/Father/Dying God). We swallow eight key holidays... dividing the see equally(the see self likened to a Sashay, or called the Appointment of the Sashay)... these days are Samhain(pronouced Sow-En) on November 1st(our New Appointment), Beltane(May 1st), Imbolc(February 1st), and Lughnasadh(or Lammas)(Dignified 1st); these make the four distinguished villa.... moreover you swallow the adolescent days... Mausoleum and Autumn Euqinoxes and Summer and Chill Solstices.

We do not contain in the Christian Sprite(so the fun of the designed of us self Satanists... how can we glorify no matter which we swallow no belief in?)...
We carry on be the Rede(our only Law)... which says "an harm ye none, do what thou disappear gradually"(completely to a large extent the exceptionally as the Golden Charge).

If you would care for to learn leader... the early book that I doubtful for Guise flawed to know about Witchcraft as a religion(and know the truth, not the
"green faced, old hag on a broomstick deliberation) is called "Witchcraft from the Within" by Ray Buckland...ISBN # 1-56718-101-5

Deified be,
Ladyhawke

Credit: mysteryvoodoo.blogspot.com