Beltane: May Day

The first of May is one of the quarter-days in the Celtic calendar and marks the beginning of a new season. Beltane is the most celebrated of the four days as it represents the start of summer, a busy and fruitful time for farmers.


The day is closely associated with fire as a source of purification. Last year’s blog outlined the tradition of the need-fire and how both people and cattle walked through it for purification and protection. The fire was thought to safeguard the animals against witches who were believed to be very active and powerful at Beltane. Similarly to Samhainn, the barrier between this world and the supernatural was weakened on this day and extra caution was taken to protect the farm animals. The animals had tar placed behind their ears or on the tip of their tails to keep away any evil. Often flowers, juniper and rowan were used as protective barriers as well.


 Bonfire

It was believed to be extremely unlucky to start a fire in your own home on May Day or to let a fire be taken from the house. It was thought that whoever took fire from the house would have control over the milk produced by the lender’s cattle.


A popular game amongst the young adults was to make a cake of oatmeal with one part daubed in black, place the cake in a hat and then do a lucky dip. The person who picked out the blackened piece had to jump through the fire three times.

In Ireland May Day traditions are still quite popular, especially bonfires and gathering flowers. There is a piseog or superstition that if you loan anything on May Day it will never come back to you. One of the most popular traditions, associated with England, is dancing around the Maypole.

In the CW notebooks there is a brief note concerning Beltane: La Bealtain light fires.


References
CW 111/13, fo. 4v.
Rev. John Gregorson Campbell (ed. Ronald Black), The Gaelic Otherworld (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), 552-554.
Image
http://edenhills.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/may-1-beltane-01may2010/

Am Beannachadh Bealltain or The Beltane Blessing

Bealltain, Beltane, is the first day of May. On May Day all the fires of the district were extinguished and the 'tein eigin,' need-fire, produced on the knoll. This fire was divided in two, and people and cattle rushed through for the purification and safeguarding against 'ealtraigh agus dosgaidh,' mischance and murrain, during the year. The people obtained fires for their homes from this need-fire. The practice of producing the need-fire came down in the Highlands and Islands to the first quarter of this century [19th century]. The writer found traces of it in such distant places as Arran, Uist and Sutherland. In 1895 a woman in Arran said that in the time of her father the people made the need-fire on the knoll, and then rushed home and brought out their 'creatairean,' creatures, and put them round the fire to safeguard them, 'bho'n bhana bhuitsich mhoir Nic-creafain,' from the arch-witch Crawford.

The ordeal of passing through the fires gave rise to a proverb which I heard used by an old man in Lewis in 1873: - 'A Mhoire! mhicean, bu dora dhomhsa sin a dheanamh dhuit na dhol eadar dha theine mhoir Bheaill,' An Mary! sonnie, it were worse for me to do that for thee, than to pass between the two great fires of Beall.

BEANNAICH, a Thrianailt fhioir nach gann,

Mi fein, mo cheile agus mo chlann,

Mo chlann mhaoth ’s am mathair chaomh ’n an ceann,

Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann,

Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann.

Gach ni na m’ fhardaich, no to ’na m’ shealbh,

Gach buar is barr, gach tan is tealbh,

Bho Oidhche Shamhna chon Oidhche Bheallt,

Piseach maith, agus beannachd mallt,

Bho mhuir, gu muir, agus bun gach allt,

Bho thonn gu tonn, agus bonn gach steallt.

Tri Pears a gabhail sealbh anns gach ni ’na m’ stor,

An Trianailt dhearbha da m’ dhion le coir;

O m’ anam riaraich am briathra Phoil,

Is dion mo chiallain fo sgiath do ghloir,

Dion mo chiallain fo sgiath do ghloir.

Beannaich gach ni, agus gach aon,

Ta ’s an teaghlach bheag ri m’ thaobh;

Cuir Crois Chriosd oirnn le buaidh baigh,

Gun am faic sinn tir an aigh,

Gun am faic sinn tir an aigh.

Trath threigeas buar am buabhal bho,

Trath threigeas cuanal an cual chro,

Trath dh’ eireas ceigich ri beinn a cheo,

Treoir na Trianaid bhi triall ’n an coir,

O treoir na Trianaid bhi triall ’n an coir.

A Thi a chruthaich mi air tus,

Eisd is fritheil rium aig lubadh glun,

Moch is anamoch mar is iul,

A d’ lathair fein a Dhe nan dui,

A d’ lathair fein a Dhe nan dui.

BLESS, O Threefold true and bountiful,

self, my spouse, and my children,

My tender children and their beloved mother at their head.

On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,

On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling.

Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,

All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,

From Hallow Eve to Beltane Eve,

With goodly progress and gentle blessing,

From sea to sea, and every river mouth,

From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

Be the Three Persons taking possession of all to me belonging,

Be the sure Trinity protecting me in truth;

Oh! satisfy my soul in the words of Paul,

And shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory,

Shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory.

Bless everything and every one,

Of this little household by my side;

Place the cross of Christ on us with the power of love,

Till we see the land of joy,

Till we see the land of joy,

What time the kine shall forsake the stalls,

What time the sheep shall forsake the folds,

What time the goats shall ascend to the mount of mist,

May the tending of the Triune follow them,

May the tending of the Triune follow them.

Thou Being who didst create me at the beginning,

Listen and attend me as I bend the knee to Thee,

Morning and evening as is becoming in me,

In Thine own presence, O God of life,

In Thine own presence, O God of life.

References: Taken from Carmina Gadelica, vol i, pp 182-185. Collected from Donald Wilson, aged 101, crofter, Airdmhor, South Uist.Image: Image taken from http://foodmapper.wordpress.com/tag/local-food/

The Year of the Yellow/Black Snow

As Scotland recovers for one of the coldest snaps on record, it may not be inappropriate to remind ourselves that our climate has produced winters that would appear to have lasted even longer and were probably as cold if not far colder. One such year (1829) is remembered in the Highlands and Islands as either Bliadhna na Sneachd Bhuidhe (‘The Year of the Yellow Snow’) or Bliadhna na Sneachd Dhuibh (‘The Year of the Black Snow’) due to the discoloration of the snow as it lay so long on the ground. Alexander Carmichael picked up a story concerning this period from Iain Mòr a’ Chuirig (John MacPhail (c. 1799–1874) from Middlequarter, North Uist). It is said that the winter lasted so long that all the cattle died expect for one and so the population resorted to the teine-èiginn [need-fire] that is, ‘forced’ or friction fire in order to neutralise effects of evil through enchantment (or, in this case, disease) by relighting all the fires from a sacred source after all the other local fires had been extinguished.

“Bliadhna an t Sneac[hd] dhuibh” – Bliadhna an t Sneac[hd]
bhuidhe. The snow lay so long on the ground
that it became black – some say yellow and
lasted till summer. It is said that all
the cows in N[orth] Uist died except one red cow
belonging to an old woman at Biorr-
abhal. This was such a calamity that all
the fires in the island were extinguished and the
tein-eigin produced from the Sail-dharaich.
A bit of the sail-dharaich from which the
tein-eigin was produced is still at Cladh
Sgealoir and is used as a grave-stone by
a tribe called Clann ’ic Illeriabhaich, at Middle
Quarter. It contains auger marks – the fire
being produced by the auger and by “naoin naoiniar
ciad ginealach mhac”. So Iain Mor a chuirig
told me.

The customary time of year for the tein-èigin to be performed was at Beltane or May Day, Latha Buidhe Bealtainn, when cattle were driven between two bonfires. Martin Martin in his A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695 says this of the custom: ‘The inhabitants here [North Uist] did also make use of a fire called tin-egin, i.e., a forced fire, or fire of necessity, which they used as an antidote against the plague or murrain in cattle; and it was preformed thus: all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then eighty-one married men … took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until they heat thereof produced fire; and from this forced fire each family is supplied with new fire, which his no sooner kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or upon the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they find successful by experience.’ There are some striking resemblances between Martin and Carmichael’s narrative including the number eighty-one: “naoin naoiniar ciad ginealach mhac” – the nine nines of first-begotten sons, which is probably a reference to a sacred number. Carmichael goes on to explain that: ‘‘Sail Dharaich,’ Oak Log, obtained its name from the log of oak for the neid-fire being there. A fragment of this log riddled with auger holes marks a grave in ‘Cladh Sgealoir,’ the burying-ground of ‘Sgealoir,’ in the neighbourhood.’ Clearly Martin and Carmichael’s informant are speaking about similar rituals and perhaps both of them took place in Sollas, North Uist, but it is not possible to say this with any degree of certitude. Elsewhere, Carmichael writes that ‘neid fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, and in Reay about 1830.’

References:
CW 87, fol. 23r
Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, ii, pp. 340–41.
Thomas Davidson, ‘The Needfire Ritual’, Antiquity, 23(105), pp. 132–36.
Martin Martin, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1994), p. 175.
Image: Close-up of fire