BELTANE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Beltane

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Beltane n.

The first day of May (Old Style). "The quarter-days anciently in Scotland were Hallowmas, Candlemas, Beltane, and Lammas."

A festival of the heathen Celts on the first day of May, in the observance of which great bonfires were kindled. It still exists in a modified form in some parts of Scotland and Ireland.

See images of 'Beltane'

Etymology of 'Beltane'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Beltane" Quotes from Famous Books

... Barnstone to the tumulus passes through the point of the midsummer sunrise and also, on the other horizon, through the point of the setting sun ten days before the winter solstice; the line from the Watchstone to the Brogar Ring marks the setting of the sun at the Beltane festival in May and its rising ten days before the winter solstice, while the line from Maeshowe to the Watchstone is in the line of the equinoctial rising and setting. These alignments are the work of Mr. Magnus Spence; readers must choose ...

— Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders • T. Eric Peet

... the town in past ages, there would not have been any fair on October 10th, since the Great Fair, called the Beltane Festival, was then held on May Day; but after the finding of the relics it was made the occasion on which to celebrate the "Finding of the Cross," pilgrims and merchants coming from all parts to join the festivities and attend the special celebrations at the Cross Church. On the occasion ...

— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor