The ancient Celtic practise of celebrating New Year Photo by Calum Hutchinson (CC-BY-SA-2.5)
Beltane (and Beltaine or Bealltainn) is an ancient festival which celebrates the end of the cold and the beginning of the warm. It comes from the ancient peoples of the Celtic Nations and is generally seen as a New Year celebration. Bealtane is a cross-quarter day, marking the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the spring equinox and summer solstice and is considered special in many other cultures.
While it is unknown if it was celebrated in Mid-May or on the earliest possible full moon prior, it is has now taken up residence these days on April 30th/May 1st and has a huge following in Scotland as well as other places.
On Carlton Hill in Edinburgh a huge party of revellers parade up to the top of the hill and are bemused at the variety of performers who re-enact ceremonies of the green man, blue men, red men and May queen and her maidens. These displays show the elements of wind, fire, water and earth, the rebirth of the year and the upcoming harvests ahead. This is made possible by the local authorities and the School of Scottish Studies from the University of Edinburgh.
There is a huge bonfire burned which is to give luck to the cattle and the crops as well as many smaller fires and fire dancers placed throughout the partying area which provide entertainment for those lucky enough to have a ticket.
To get a feel for the festival please watch this excellent video which shows it from start to end in an well edited fashion.
To read more about Beltane and the fire festival please read this article.
If you know of a festival from somewhere in the world and would like to see it included on Mundo Exchange please feel free to contact us with the details of it and we will happily look into including it and sharing it with the world.
About Scott Lyon
Scott is our renaissance man. Combining his love of community development, varied cultures, travelling and computing skills he helps guide the web site towards one which shows our projects and good works whilst maintaining user privacy and promoting Open Source software.
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