Bealtaine

Before you read

The hills of Ireland, on the first of May

Bealtaine (Irish for May, and the name of the festival) marked the beginning of summer, the opposite of Samhain on the wheel of the year. The Glossary of Cormac, written around 900, says that two great fires were lit, and the cattle were driven between them to protect them from disease before they went out to the summer pastures. Later writers say that the fire of Bealtaine was lit on the Hill of Uisneach, the sacred centre of Ireland, and that every hearth in the land was relit from it; since 2009, a Bealtaine fire festival has been held again on Uisneach.

In the Book of the Taking of Ireland, great events happen at Bealtaine: the people of Partholón, the first settlers after the Flood, died of a plague at Bealtaine; the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived on Bealtaine in their dark clouds; and the sons of Míl came on Bealtaine too. In the 7th-century Life of Saint Patrick, the saint lit an Easter fire on the Hill of Slane on the night when the king at Tara had ordered that no fire be lit before his own. The king’s druids warned that if that fire was not put out that night, it would never be put out in Ireland. Later tradition connected this festival fire with Bealtaine.

Folk customs of May. On May Eve, people believed, the fairies were out and about, and butter, milk and luck could be stolen by magic. So people mustn’t give away fire, milk or salt on May Day; they decorated a May bush (a hawthorn branch) with ribbons and eggshells; they put yellow May flowers on doors and windows; and young women washed their faces in the May morning dew to make themselves beautiful for the year.

Every beginning deserves to be welcomed with light.

The story

Retold for this lesson from Muirchú’s 7th-century Life of Saint Patrick and later Irish tradition.

It was the night before Bealtaine, and in the royal fort of Tara, King Lóegaire had given a strict order: no fire was to be lit anywhere in the land that night until the great festival fire was lit at Tara. Anyone who lit a fire before it would die. All over Ireland, the hearths were cold and dark, and people waited.

But that same night, it was also Easter Eve, and a stranger had come to Ireland: Patrick, a Briton who had once been a slave in Ireland, and who had come back as a bishop to preach a new faith. He and his companions climbed the Hill of Slane, across the valley from Tara, and as darkness fell, Patrick lit a great Easter fire on the hilltop.

From the walls of Tara, the king saw the flames on Slane and was furious. “Who has dared to do this?” he shouted. His druids looked at the fire and grew pale. “O king,” they said, “if that fire is not put out tonight, it will never be put out in Ireland. It will burn for ever, and it will overcome the fires of Tara.”

The king rode with his chariots to Slane to arrest the stranger. The old story says that there were miracles and wonders, that the druids’ magic failed, and that in the end one of the king’s own men knelt to Patrick. The king did not change his faith, but he let Patrick preach. And the fire of Slane, the story says, was never put out. People still climb the Hill of Slane at Easter, and on the Hill of Uisneach, the old Bealtaine fire is lit once again every year.

Talk and write

Discussion and writing

Superstition survey. In groups, collect superstitions from your families and countries, and present them with conditionals and it’s good / bad luck to.

Discuss. 1. Why do you think so many superstitions are about the start of a season? 2. Do you know anyone who follows a superstition? Do you? 3. Why did the story of Patrick’s fire become so important?

Write (120–150 words). A May Eve guide. Write a guide for a visitor to an Irish village on May Eve long ago, with the rules and superstitions they must follow.