BELTANE

Beltane and Samhain, which lie halfway around the "wheel of the year" from each other, are perhaps the most beloved of Pagan holidays. Where Samhain celebrates the Dead and the world of the Ancestors, Beltane's focus is primarily Life, fertility and the joy to be had from a world abounding in sensual pleasures and the love of our companions. Traditions such as the phallic Maypole celebrate the erotic energies of the festival, and the custom of pairing off in the outdoors for lovemaking to bless the land and confer fertility to the fields is an old one in some European cultures: sexual revelry in the microcosm translates to fecundity in the wider world. For modern Pagans, this fecundity which we see in the burgeoning gardens and fields around us is echoed in the fertility — either literal or metaphorical — that we hope to bring into our personal lives.

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