Guest Author - Amelia Tucker

Beltane begins at dusk, the last night of April. It also marks the halfway point between spring equinox and summer solstice. A celebration of fertility and life, Beltane has strong ties to many cultures. Even the tamer, adapted version of Mayday, is a celebration in it's own way. With small baskets of flowers left on doorstep and giggles of laughter as children peek from behind bushes, while unsuspecting neighbors find these spring gifts at their door, Mayday is a wonderful way to bring Beltane to everyone.

For a Beltane Altar, you might use the colors of life bursting forth. In my home this is the brightness of green. To represent the bright sunny days and spring warmth, candles and golden reflective anything. I can usually include perfect specimens from my tulip or daffodil beds and my violets are coming up nicely so they get a place in a tiny vase that my children have tied a green ribbon around.

Celebrating the union of the Lord and Lady, fertility rituals, Maypole dancing, handfastings and great bonfires in which both people and livestock were run between for purification and luck in the upcoming year. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

As a child, I actually had a chance to dance around a maypole! I know this sounds hard to believe, but my small, country school actually had a recital, where we all practiced and then performed a maypole dance, complete with ribbon and pole. It was a glorious occasion. We also made tons (I was in third grade, it seemed like tons) of May baskets, out of construction paper. We then went through the halls and hung them on other classroom's doorknobs. I am now curious to know if that lovely,new music teacher was hiding some wiccan ways behind her neat, preppy appearance? Something to ponder.

This year, I would like to connect the celebration of Beltane from many places around Bellaonline.com. Please take a moment and click the links at the bottom of this article. You will stay on Bellaonline, and you will visit other wonderful volunteer editors, all of whom have something to share with all of us about this joyous time of year.

Because I can only link to three sites below, I will add the fourth site here:

Beltane, Dancing on May Day