Beltane

Beltane is pronounced BEL-tayn in English. The Irish spelling is Bealtaine, pronounced roughly BYAL-tin-uh, and both spellings are correct. Bealtaine is also the ordinary Irish word for the month of May, which is why the festival and the month share a name.

Beltane is not witchcraft. It is a pagan festival, kept by witches, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, and plenty of people who claim no label at all, and it marks the start of summer rather than any particular practice. A witch may build a ritual around Beltane, but the festival itself is a day on the calendar, the way a harvest festival is a day and not a farming method.

The colors worn on Beltane are green and white with the fire colors, red, orange, and yellow. Green carries the season's growth, white the May flowers, and the fire colors the Beltane flame. A flower crown counts as wearing the season, and for many pagans it is the whole outfit.

Samhain and Beltane are the two great fire festivals of the Gaelic calendar, set six months apart and facing each other across the Wheel of the Year. Beltane opens summer and the bright half of the year; Samhain opens winter and the dark half. Beltane's fire is the summer fire, lit for growth and protection at the season's start, and Samhain's is the light kept for the ancestors as the year closes.

Beltane and May Day fall on the same day and share the same season, but they are not the same holiday. Beltane is the Gaelic festival at the start of summer, and May Day is the English folk holiday that grew up on the same date, with the maypole belonging to the English side. Modern pagans keep Beltane and happily borrow the maypole, so on any given May 1 the two are hard to tell apart in a yard.