Beltane! Celebrate with the faes

[marsnymph]

Hi! I was wondering how everyone was planning on celebrating Beltane. It will be my first time celebrating a pagan (celtic) holiday. I read that the veil between the faes realm and ours is thinner on this holiday so I would love to do something with them. Any ideas?
What are you planning to do? It doesn't need to be related to spirit keeping.

[Thyr]

We'll have a BBQ and a small fire with our neighbours (we share a house, so it's okay for the Covid restrictions in our country).
I'll prepare a May Punch with woodruff for the adults and some strawberry punch for the children.
We collected some timber throughout the last months in the woods around us, to honour the spirits surrounding us. I'll make a bundle with fresh spring herbs and honey and prepare some incense as offering for the fire.
Our neighbours aren't into anything Pagan, although one of them did kind of ghost hunting as a hobby for a few years when he was younger.
Here in Germany anything related to "Walpurgisnacht" is still very heathen (although often very stereotypical with ugly witches dancing around a big fire, but at least most communities provide fires to celebrate the day), so nobody gives you strange looks. I already feel all my spirits getting excited to celebrate with us.

So to answer your questions about activities with my fae in detail:
My Fire and Butterfly Fairy will definitely enjoy the fire and the offerings for it.
My Eurono Fairy will be pleased by our dinner and if I'll have enough time I'll invite him to bake bread with me.
My Woodland and Waif Fairy will enjoy the walk we'll do to collect the herbs for the offerings.

[marsnymph]

We'll have a BBQ and a small fire with our neighbours (we share a house, so it's okay for the Covid restrictions in our country).
I'll prepare a May Punch with woodruff for the adults and some strawberry punch for the children.
We collected some timber throughout the last months in the woods around us, to honour the spirits surrounding us. I'll make a bundle with fresh spring herbs and honey and prepare some incense as offering for the fire.
Our neighbours aren't into anything Pagan, although one of them did kind of ghost hunting as a hobby for a few years when he was younger.
Here in Germany anything related to "Walpurgisnacht" is still very heathen (although often very stereotypical with ugly witches dancing around a big fire, but at least most communities provide fires to celebrate the day), so nobody gives you strange looks. I already feel all my spirits getting excited to celebrate with us.

So to answer your questions about activities with my fae in detail:
My Fire and Butterfly Fairy will definitely enjoy the fire and the offerings for it.
My Eurono Fairy will be pleased by our dinner and if I'll have enough time I'll invite him to bake bread with me.
My Woodland and Waif Fairy will enjoy the walk we'll do to collect the herbs for the offerings.

It all sounds so fun, I wish! I am sure you'll have a great time and thanks for the ideas

[Crossover93]

I wish I knew more. It's related to fertility right? I have an Aphrodite fae and Violet and Lily fae, a Gorse and Green Winged Prosperity fae. My birthday is mid May. Even after watching the wicker man I sense that movie was related to Beltane.

[Alaric]

I wish I knew more. It's related to fertility right? I have an Aphrodite fae and Violet and Lily fae, a Gorse and Green Winged Prosperity fae. My birthday is mid May. Even after watching the wicker man I sense that movie was related to Beltane.

Yes, the Wicker Man includes a scene with boys dancing around a maypole and the christian police sergeant arrives on Summerisle on April 29th. So, yes, all around Beltane, with scenes of love making between young couples - said to be a Beltane tradition - plus some younger women jumping over a fire for fertility reasons.

One of my favourite films. It came out same year I got my first occult books and first tarot card pack (1973).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicker_Man

[Crossover93]

@Alaric Another great thing in the film is the folk music. It is hypnotizing almost putting one into a trance. Britt Eckland is gorgeous in that movie! Would diety you align most with Beltane? I've been wanting to make jewelry for my holiday haha. Crystal flower necklace or bracelets.

[Alaric]

@Alaric Another great thing in the film is the folk music. It is hypnotizing almost putting one into a trance. Britt Eckland is gorgeous in that movie! Would diety you align most with Beltane? I've been wanting to make jewelry for my holiday haha. Crystal flower necklace or bracelets.

Personally I treat Beltane as a marker point in the wheel of the year, marking when the tides turn, energy-wise...kind of thing.

However Beltane (from the Irish Gaelic) may originally have been connected with Celtic deity Belenus, or even the Near Eastern/Phoenician/Canaanite deity Baal. These ideas appear to be conjectures based on analysis of the word Beltane. nb Some sources argue that the Celts never 'worshipped' the sun. Even if his 'cult' was linked to the date of Beltane at some point, Belenus may not actually have been a sun god as such.

This article may be of interest.

https://irishmyths.com/2022/04/24/what-is-beltane/

[Crossover93]

@Alaric I've also heard of a deity known as the Horned god depicted in the sign of Taurus. Not sure if that's the one you mentioned but yeah.

[Alaric]

@Alaric I've also heard of a deity known as the Horned god depicted in the sign of Taurus. Not sure if that's the one you mentioned but yeah.

When you say that I think of Cernunnos...aka Herne The Hunter in England, although that link is conjectural. Or it could just be the archetypal Horned God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_God

I guess those who link any of them with the Taurus time of year (if any do) may do that because this type of deity is assumed to be linked to nature, among other things.

see also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos
https://celtic.mythologyworldwide.com/u ... and-death/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herne_the_Hunter

As you've referenced the film The Wicker Man in this thread, you might like to know that Herne the Hunter appears as a character in some episodes of Robin of Sherwood, a 1980s UK prime time tv series. At the time there was an underground renaissance of new age/occult interest in the UK, which I'd just latched onto when the first episodes were broadcast in 1984. That could be why a writer had thought of this kind of slant to the series, although it could have been serendipity. This is my favourite version of the Robin Hood myth, as it contains plenty of occult/pagan elements.

The first series - the one with Michael Praed, is best for that, in my opinion. For viewers who can access catch up tv in the uk, it's currently available for free on ITVx.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_of_Sherwood

[Crossover93]

Interesting. Also though the movie is recent I think Beltane was depicted in Midsommar