Beltane
A festival celebrating the beginning of summer; it was one of the two great fire festivals in the early Celtic world, the other
being Samhuinn or hallowe'en. Traditionally the Fianna left the people and went out to hunt, flocks and herds were put out to pasture
and the seed was sown. Beltane was marked by the lighting of sacred fires in supplication to the sun which fertilizes the earth. The festival and its rites continued in some parts of the Highlands until the early 19th century and it is now the May Day holiday in Scotland.
Return
To Scottish Trivia
