Word of the Day

: May 1, 2011

Beltane

noun BEL-tayn

What It Means

: the Celtic May Day festival

Beltane in Context

Aunt Kat vividly described the huge bonfires and colorful rituals she had witnessed at the Beltane festival in Edinburgh as a girl.

"Meg said that Beltane eve was one of great natural power. Blessings and curses abounded as the veil between the worlds thinned. " -- From Traci E. Hall's 2010 novel Boadicea's Legacy

Did You Know?

To the ancient Celts, May Day was a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were removed and people needed to take special measures to protect themselves against enchantments. The Beltane fire festival originated in a spring ritual in which cattle were herded between two huge bonfires to protect them from evil and disease. Perhaps the earliest mention of Beltane (formerly spelled "beltene," "belltaine," and "beltine") appears in an Old Irish dictionary commonly attributed to Cormac, a king and bishop who lived in Cashel, Ireland, toward the end of the first millennium. The "Beltane" spelling entered English in the 15th century by way of Scottish Gaelic.