PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, but Beltane is on the first day of May. What is being celebrated and HOW do you celebrate??? (SIDE QUESTION: do any witches celebrate the full moon? Also, how do you celebrate it?) Thanks so much for your time!!!
Seven answers:
?
2012-04-27 22:52:09 UTC
Often we go to group rituals or big weekend Beltane camp-outs with our Pagan groups, but we're having a quiet family celebration this year.
My daughter in college is coming home for the week. The little kids are decorating the altar this week, and will probably make decorations (herbal sachets, floral chains, ribbons, etc.) for the tree outside.
Hubby is off and plans to fire up the BBQ and I would like to bake a nice cake or cupcakes for dessert.
We'll probably play & swim, eat dinner, then sit around reading stories and drumming/singing/dancing.
After the younger ones and my husband are off to bed, my daughter and I are probably going to do a more formal Wiccan ritual. Maybe some tarot card readings or scrying.
°•.Røwan.•°
2012-04-26 12:29:07 UTC
I don't celebrate Beltane on May 1st. I celebrate it on the day of the first full moon (the closest to Beltane, this year it'll be May 6 I believe).
Traditionally, we dance near bonfire, just a night spent with everyone around.
I do reserve my strongest wishes and make cleansing water on that day. I do the change of seasons (all these in private BTW not as a group). I tend to do my practices on my own however. Have done this for many many years now. It is a time when (Beltane and Samhain) I meditate and attempt my spiritual connections. I have my own ritual I perform :)
2012-04-26 12:15:52 UTC
Usually just a babby roast, but this year I may sacrifice a few virgins, too.
Hope it doesn't rain too much.... the sacrificial bonfires are SO hard to light when they're damp. :(
Scarlet MacBlu
2012-04-26 12:11:19 UTC
Personally, I don't do much. I like going to the Circle Sanctuary Beltane festival, but cannot this year. They have an excellent ritual involving a charged maypole and leaping the fire for purification. I have no capacity for that in my home town or backyard and my local community doesn't do it the same way, so I don't like their ritual as much. (The maypole in our town is reserved for the children... Huh? The CHILDREN?! I fail to see how a maypole ritual is appropriate for children, given its obvious sexual symbolism. It's a young adults ritual for fertility, not just an excuse for little kids to dance and play. I think it misses the point and don't like watching the local community ritual.)
Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but Beltane can be viewed as a celebration of sex, unity, creation and rebirth. A persons celebration of said festival might involve his or her closest intimate partner in a private setting and include a reverent and playful approach to predictable but pleasurable behavior.... ahem.
Beyond that one might do things like tie wishing ribbons to a sacred tree or decorate a sacred well with garlands.
Yes, plenty of witches celebrate the full moon which does not occur until five days after May 1st next month. Personally, I do not celebrate them often.
-Scarlet
LARA, age 82
2012-04-26 12:10:01 UTC
Don't know about celebrating Beltane, but I always wash my face with dew on the first morning in May and have only a few light wrinkles although I am going on 84
?
2012-04-26 12:06:18 UTC
All of my friends who are Pagan (Wiccans and Druids) get together and have a party.
In the afternoon we sit around singing music, and dancing. We have a maypole, and we do a maypole dance.
In the evening we have a dinner, which we rightfully call our Beltane Feast - its larger than most thanksgiving meals (and we joke that my family cooks for the entire army on thanksgiving with how much food is made!).
After this, we go outside and have a bonfire - one Beltane tradition from ages long past. Couples jump over the bonfire to bring good luck for the following year. After we are done, we make the bonfire bigger and have S'Mores, sit around singing, and telling stories.
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I'm afraid I cannot tell you how witches celebrate the full moon, as I, a druid, do not celebrate it in a special way.
?
2012-04-26 12:00:23 UTC
After 4/20 I need a couple months to recover.
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