Beltane

Great Earth Mother!
We give you praise today and ask for your blessing upon us.  As seeds spring forth and grass grows green and winds blow gently and the rivers flow and the sun shines down upon our land, we offer thanks to you for our blessings and your gifts of life each Spring.

Merry Meet!  It is Beltane!  Light a fire, dance and feast, light a fire with the one you love!  Today is a turning point in the year and is all about the coming of Spring! The coming of fair weather and longer daylight hours would be most welcome after a long cold and dark winter.

To the pastoral Celtic people’s of Europe the changing pattern of the seasons was a matter of life and death, and marking these changes key moments in the life of the community. Beltane – “bright fire” – was one such marker celebrated in various forms across Ireland, Scotland and Man as the starting point of summer. A celebration of the time of light and growth to come, Beltane was associated with a variety of practices, from the display of fresh greenery to the baking of Beltane bannocks. Perhaps the most important element, however, was the lighting of Beltane fires on the first of May, which would recall the growing power of the sun and provide an opportunity to cleanse and renew the conditions of a community – both humans and their animals – that had spent the dark months indoors. 
In Scotland, the lighting of Beltane fires – round which cattle were driven, over which brave souls danced and leapt – would survive into modern times, although a process of slow decline saw towns and villages slowly abandon the practice in the nineteenth century. The last Beltane fire recorded in Helmsdale took place in 1820. In the middle years of the century the fires of Fife spluttered out, and by the 1870s they would go unlit in the Shetland Isles. By the start of the twentieth century, Edinburgh, which had for time immemorial seen beacons lit on Arthur’s Seat, ceased such public Beltane celebrations. (from A Detailed History of Beltane)

To me, Beltane is like the "new year" and I want to start off this new year living more green and sustainable; reusing or recycling; producing less waste and purging my house and life of things that do not bring me joy. (I read this great article about Marie Kondo, check it out!)  She says to discard everything that does not "spark joy" after thanking the objects for their service.  She says to dump your whole closet of clothes on your bed and go through them one by one and thank the one's you get rid of and only keep the one's that make you feel good.  I want to try this.