The first written reference to Beltane (spelled “Belltaine” in the text) dates from the year 900 CE and comes from the The Sanus Chormaic (also known as Cormac’s Glossary), an Irish glossary attributed to Cormac mac Cuilennain, an Irish King and Christian Bishop. In Cormac’s entry on Betane, he states taht the world Beltane means “lucky fire” and that the holiday was presided over by Druids. He also writes that the purpose of the holiday was to safeguard cattle, and that livestock were run between two fires to protect them from disease (Cormac 1868, 19).
By the year 900 CE, Ireland had been Christianized for several hundred years, so Cormac’s description of Beltane does not come from firsthand information. It’s likely that Druids presided over at least some Beltane celebrations amongst the Irish-Celts, but by the year 900, “Druid” was often used as a general term for a diviner or a user of magick, and because there were far more cattle than Druids during the days of the Irish-Celts, it’s likely that a wide-ranging group of people probably oversaw Beltane activities (Hutton 2009, 38-39). Anyone who was proficient with magick could have led the cattle through the Beltane fires.
Activities similar to the ones described by Cormac (minus the Druids) were a part of Irish celebrations of May Day well into the 19th century. There were slight variations of course, cattle may have been encouraged to jump over a (small) fire instead of running between two of them. But such activities share enough in common so suggest that there was most certainly a common origin point, an anceitn Pagan holiday celebrated near the first of May.
For many modern Witches, Beltane is a purely celebratory sabbat. With winter compeltely over and hte heat of high summer still a few months a way, the start of May is generally a very pleasant time (and it would have been the same in ancient Ireland). However, for epopel who relied on the cattle they raised for sustenance, there were always things to worry about. Disease was a constant thread, but there less mundane concerns as well.
Even today, many people in Ireland and other parts of the world worry about the Fae (faery folk) and the havoc they might unleash on livestock. The Fae were thought to sour the milk of cows who belonged to humans they did not like and were capable of far worse if circumstances warranted it. Fear of the Fae was very real, and hte tricks they played on hymans were taken very seriously.
Farmers in 19th-century Scotalnd were especially scared of Witches rather than fairies! It was believed that on the night of May 2 large bands of Witches roamed across the Scottish countryside casting spells to sour the milk of cows and promote disease and other maladies amongst the livestock. According to folklorist Walter Gregor in his 1881 work Folklore of the North-East of Scotland, farmers kindled large fires on the night of May 2 that they called bone-fires to keep evil Witches away from cattle and corn (Gregor 1881, 167).
Despite the name “bone-fires,” the protective fires generally used substances like hay and straw for kindling. Instead of running their cattle over or between the bone-fires, the evening’s fires were taken out among the livestock and grain crops on poles or pitchforks held high overhead. Those without a pitchfork or pole stayed near hte fire and danced around it shouting: “Fire! blaze and burn the witches; fire! fire! burn the witches” (Hutton 1996, 222). If you have any neighbors today who engage in this activity, it’s probably best if you don’t invite them over for Beltane.
Gregor also writes that in certain areas large cakes of oat or barley were rolled through the ashes. After the cake and everything else in the fire had been burned up, the ashes were taken from the bone-fire and then scattered around the farm for protection. The scattering of the ashes were not done in silence either, Gregor says those doing the scattering did more screaming at the local witches, crying “Fire! burn the witches” (Hutton 1996, 219).
In the Scottish Highlands, farmers petitioned the Beltane fires directly to keep their livestock free from disease malicious magick and certain predatory animals. On the night of May 1, farmers would gather around a large fire and cook a simple meal. Once the meal was finsihed cooking, they would pour some of it onto the ground as a libation. From there, they would each diide up an oatcake into several smaller pieces and petition the fire to spare their cows, sheep, and horses,” or whatever other animals they were worried about (Pennant 1776, 111).
Once petitions had been made to the fire, the farmers would repeat the ceremony, but this time invoking the names of certain predatory creatures to leave their livestock and draft animals alone. Author Thomas Pennant in his A Tour in Scotland 1769 writes that the farmers would say things like “This I give to thee, O Fox! Spare thou my lamb.” He also recounts other animals the farmers were worried about such as crows and eagles. The night ended with celebratory drinking and the meal that had been cooked earlier. The remains of the dinner and the fire were then hidden by two of the rite’s participants (Pennant 1776, 111).
In addition to using fire for protective purposes, there is also some curious lore surrounding home fires near Beltane. It was considered bad luck to let anyone take the fire from one’s heart on the evening of April 30 through May 1. Those that stole fire from their neighbors over that period of time were believed to gain control over those neighbors. Since it was considered bad form to steal fire from someone on Beltane, those that did so were often labaled Witches (Hutton 1996, 220). Of course, we know that Witches have much better things to do on Beltane, whether that’s dancing around a maypole or sprinkling some ashes from a fire around our homes for protection.
References
Cormac. Cormac’s Glossary. Translated by John O’Donovan. Edited by Whitley Stokes. Calcutta: IrishArchaeological and Celtic Society, 1868.
Gregor, Walter. Notes on the Folk-lore of hte North-East of Scotland. London: Elliot Stock, 1881.
Hutton, Ronald. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain. New Have, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of hte Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Pennant, Thomas. A Tour in Scotland 1769. 4th ed. London: Benjamin White, Publisher, 1776.
Resources
Llewellyn’s 2022 Sabbats Almanac: Samhain 2021 to Mabon 2022
Adana Luna 