(Following is an excerpt from the Reformed Druidism 101 course,
written by Adam Walks Between Worlds, El Arseneau and
Ceridwen Seren-Ddaear. The CDROM course is available online at Avalon
Risen: avalonrisen.mithrilstar.org/brit3.htm):

Beltane / Calan Mai -- May 1

"Of great importance is the festival of Beltane, which is at the
beginning of Samradh. Then shall ye observe great ceremony; and with
the kindling of large fires on the hilltops, and the glorification of
the renewed tree shall ye celebrate the renewed life." – DC(R) The
Book of the Law, 4:5


It's May, it's May,
the lusty month of May,
That lovely month when everyone goes
blissfully astray.
It's here, it's here,
that shocking time of year,
When tons of little wicked thoughts
merrily appear.
It's May, that gorgeous holiday,
When every maiden letches for fun,
wholesome or un.
It's mad! It's gay, depraved in every way.
Those dreary vows that everyone takes,
everyone breaks, everyone makes divine mistakes.
The lusty month of May.
~~From the musical, "Camelot"


Beltane celebrates the midpoint between the Vernal Equinox and the
Summer Solstice. Beltane (bauL-Ti-Ni, or bauL-Hi-Ni), known in Modern
Irish as L· Bealtaine (Laa bauL-Hi-ni, or Laa baul-Ti-ni), in Welsh as
Calan-Mai (calends of May), in Scottish Gaelic as Baltiunn, and in
Manx as Shenn da Boaddyn, La Boaldyn, or Laa'nTourey (Day of Summer;
is, of course, the day we know in English as May Day. It is also
called by a variety of other names, such as Roodmas, Summer Day,
Walpurgistag, St. Pierre's Day, Red Square Day, etc. It is the
beginning of the Summer Half of the Year (the seasons of Samradh;
Foghamhar) and is a festival of unalloyed joy.

A very large number of important mythological events are connected
with this day. It was on a Beltane that Partholan and his followers,
the first inhabitants and partial creators of Ireland, landed on that
isle. Three hundred years later, on the same day, they returned to the
Other World. It was on a Beltane that the Tuatha De Danann and their
people invaded Ireland. It was on a May Eve that Pryderi, the missing
son of Rhiannon and Pwyll (Rulers of the Welsh Otherworld) was lost by
them and later (on another May Eve) was found by Teirnyon Twryf Vliant
(and eventually restored to Them).

On every first day of May "till the day of doom," Gwyn-son-of-Nudd
fights with Gwyrthur-son-of Greidawl, for the hand of Lludd's (Lugh's)
fair daughter, Creudylad. Most of these events, again, as all over
Europe, have to do with stories of the forces of light defeating the
forces of darkness. Why did you think the Marxists chose May Day as
their international Holiday? And can you guess why Adam Weishaupt
chose Walpurgistag as the day to announce the founding of the Bavarian
Iluuminati, and why the date at which the forces of evil later tired
to Imannetize the Eschaton?

The focus is on fertility and the planting of crops. This is a more
intense holiday, magickally speaking, than Oestara. The rites include
as many people as are available making love in the fields, in the
gardens, on hilltops etc. Traditionally, marriage vows are suspended.
Everyone is encouraged to share and grow closer with as many different
partners as possible. The "Balefire" is lit on the hilltops and in
ceremonial groves, and couples jump the bale fire in order to insure
their own fertility. During the day, the May pole is erected, and the
traditional dance is performed around it. The May pole is a symbolic
penis decorated with multicolored ribbons and topped with a wreath. I
found it amusing (living as I did in Santa Cruz, CA) that some of the
local Dianic Wiccans always hold public rites involving the May Pole.
These are folks who believe that men are inherently evil, that there
is only a Goddess, and that real magick and spirituality are the sole
dominion of women (or wymen as some like to put it) yet here they are
on the front cover of the local paper dancing around a symbolic penis!

May Day is also sacred to the Goddess. The Catholic Church makes it
the day for the crowning of the May Queen, Mary, and her statue is
decorated and paraded around by school children, who also usually
build home "May altars" in her honor. More explicitly Pagan rites
involving Mary can be found in many Latin American countries as well.

May Day is also "International Workers Day." This socialist holiday is
celebrated everywhere in the world except in the United States (we do
the first Monday of September and call it Labor Day -- this was to
divorce it from its socialist origins). Is there a connection between
Labor and Beltane? Perhaps blue collar people are more into fertility
(and therefore production) than the bourgeois. It's something else I
am researching.

In Ireland up to fifty years ago, the very devout Catholics there
still were lighting the bale fires, and making love in the fields
(marriage vows suspended for the day). Children born of such unions
were referred to as "fairy children," and treated as special gifts
from the fairy folk. The prefix "Fitz" was once given to children born
of Beltane unions, hence the proliferation in Ireland of
"Fitzgeralds," "Fitzsimmons," etc. For every "sinful" tradition,
there has to be a cover up, so today some Irish say the "Fitz" prefix
actually refers to those of Norman origin who immigrated to Ireland.
In fact, it is the "O'" prefix (as in "O'Connor, O'Flarherty,
"O'Hara," etc.,) that refers to Norman heritage, not the "Fitz."

(Copyright 1996 - 2008, Order of the Mithril Star of the Reformed
Druids of Gaia, Eureka CA USA -- www.mithrilstar.org )