I'm looking forward to Beltane this year. It's one of the more fun public rituals that I participate in with my local Pagan Community and it's usually outside, which really sits well with my ritual sensibilities. I’ve celebrated Beltane for as long as I can remember, although I didn’t always know it by that name growing up. I have extremely fond childhood memories of May Day celebrations in south east London and Kent. Most of the celebrations were at my school (St. Mary Magdalene C of E) and on the church grounds themselves right on the banks of the River Thames.

Beltane celebrations happening on Church grounds weren’t particularly unique experiences. I went to lots of different May Day events at churches.  There was often a church fete with scones and knitted things and lots of elderly ladies that all sounded just like every Monty Python Character you can conjure up. What was special about these gatherings is that it felt like we were all engaging with something that was "always just done".  I even have pictures of my grandmother as a young girl in the 1930s dressed as the May Queen.

These events were of mix of themes and moments in time - There were the "International Worker's Day" themes, when the local clergy would team up with earnest young political types and talk about unions and Margaret Thatcher and Worker’s Rights and maybe even Socialism.  If I look back in time, I can imagine the upheaval that was happening in Britain and why Anarchists came to church (That might just be a great title for a book!).

Other May Days definitely harkened back to the "merry olde Englande" years. I can picture the daisy chain headbands and flowing cotton skirts and Jethro Tull looking men with tights and goatees. There were hobbie horses and antlers and shouts of “Aye” and home-made beer. Of course, I could be mixing up a few memories because I had an uncle by marriage, that I'm now realizing is actually a second cousin, that was in the 1970s folk band Pyewackett and there were lots of costumed folks around me at that time.

And throughout all of this there were the definite “when we were pagans" years. Nothing was particularly veiled. As the festivities wound down, "grown ups" would start making comments about the "birds and the bees" and note who was leaving with whom. And of course there was the ubiquitous May pole dance and all of the sideways glances and winks and “look at the size of that pole” jokes that went completely over my head but obviously got lodged somewhere in my brain.

Although Beltane and May Day celebrations have been going on in England and the British Isles for many hundreds of years, perhaps even thousands, it's unclear just how much of what we commonly associate with Beltane reaches back into antiquity. Celebrating the return of Spring would almost defintely occured. One can make a pretty strong argument that the stories of Ancient Britain and Wales, The Mabinogi (commonly called The Mabinogion ), contain a lost or forgotten cycle of the seasons. Maypoles are fairly well-documented over the past several hundred years, but sadly, documentation of druids showing up at Stonehenge for a good ol' fashioned knees up have not surfaced. Jason Mankey, a good friend, Pagan and prolific writer has this to say about some of the Beltane traditions we hold dear and I rather like where he goes with his piece.

As for me, I'll surely be dancing around the Maypole this year and enjoying the Rites and making another Beltane memory.

Beltane Blessings to you all...

Notes: All pictures are from Shutterstock as nobody wants to see the Beltane pictures of me I have...locked away!