Happy Beltane!
My husband and I have been trying to get more in touch with our Celtic roots. Not only that, but all of our respective heritages. As Americans, it’s not a simple task, particularly because we are rather isolated and far removed from where our ancestors originated. I have more Scottish heritage than anything else (followed closely by Austrian and Irish), and so I’ve been heavily researching ways we connect with our overlapping Celtic heritage. One of those ways is by learning more about and celebrating traditional Celtic holidays. Most modern holidays hold little meaning for us, but through these holidays, like Beltane (or Celtic May Day), celebrated on the first day of May, we can learn more about ancestors and explore the cultural heritage we lost when our ancestors moved to the United States.
I love the symolism of Beltane. Celebrated between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, it heralds the arrival of warmer weather and purges the previous year from the household. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a fresh start, particularly if you don’t like that the typical new year begins in the middle of night in the middle of winter. I find that Beltane is quite accurate in the timing of when trees get their leaves back, too. So, I wore one of my favorite organic cotton dresses to celebrate nature and remind myself that we should all be good stewards of the earth, no matter the time of year.
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Outfit Details
Skin Dress, Gold Wax Seal Necklace, Julie Vos Bracelets (L-R) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Jack Rogers Sandals, T3 Curling Iron
Beltane has been celebrated for thousands and thousands of years, since long before the Iron Age, in what’s now Scotland, Ireland, Wales and beyond. So much of Scottish and Irish culture was lost or stolen because of violence and oppression from the English, and mass exoduses to places like the United States where they were forced to adopt different beliefs. By connecting with these ancient traditions, we hope to learn more about what could’ve been had our ancestors remained in Scotland. We’ve also adopted a few Norwegian traditions from my husband’s side of the family, so keep an eye out for more about those as well.
There are so many cool traditions surrounding Beltane. While much of it can be viewed as superstitious or “pagan”, the same can be said about Christmas which approopriated nearly all of its traditions from Celtic Yule, Halloween which appropriated most of its traditions from Samhain, and Easter which is worship of Mesopotamia’s Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, rebranded. So, I don’t believe any one set of traditions is more valid or legtimate than the other. That being said, Beltane is the perfect excuse to wear gold and yellow, having a roaring bonfire, weave a flower crown, and bringing bonfire flames indoors to chase out the shadows of a long winter and symbolically celebrate the return of warmth. I particularly love the tradition of waking at dawn and washing my face in fresh dew. It’s said to bring good health, good luck, and beauty! Did you know the Beltane Fire Society openly encourages anyone with an open mind to explore Beltane? You don’t even have to have Celtic ancestry to celebrate!
Does your family celebrate any “unusual” holidays? One of my favorite parts of traveling is learning about people live so differently (or, more often, not so differently) from one another. Traditional holidays like Beltane deserve to be shared, because if we don’t keep them going, they might just end up in the past, and what’s life without variety? I hope you have a beautiful start of summer, and that you reap all of the benefits of washing your face with dawn dew without the effort of waking up early.
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