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Beltane Festival
Dates for 2008: 30 AprilTel: +44 (0)131 228 5353
Run by a voluntary committee, The Beltane Fire Society, the festival is now internationally renowned attracting crowds of around 15,000 to Calton Hill on the night of April 30 to a colourful fusion of Celtic music and street theatre and glowing fire performances, adding an incendiary note to this highly gregarious event
Originating from the Scottish and Irish pre-Christian festival of the same name, Beltane derives from Gaelic translating as 'bright/sacred fire' and marks the beginning of summer and end of winter in the Celtic calendar. Traditionally, Beltane did not fall on any particular calendar date but generally occurred on the first full moon after the 1st of May on the modern calendar.
Historically, Beltane like Christmas was the principal community celebration and gathering of the year, being the most significant feast in the Celtic heartlands of Europe. The flowering hawthorne trees marked the beginning of Beltane, a time when drovers led their cattle to upland pastures for the summer season. Consequently, this was a period that fostered relationships and setting the ground for marriages in autumn.
In today's context, Beltane Festival continues to forge close links within and between communities in the common purpose of its own good fortune. Beltane is primarily a festival for the local community of Edinburgh to appreciate their Celtic heritage and roots; however its reputation spreads far and wide each year making it accessible to the community at large.
On visiting this spectacular cultural feast, each and every person will leave with various perceptions on this remarkable event, however, most would concur that its fundamental role is to preserve Scotland's Celtic heritage.
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