30/04/2026
Witches Night and Bealtaine Eve.
Happy Walpurgis Night to all here who celebrate it.
People often wonder if there is a connection or relationship between this night and Bealtaine.
I used to write that European cultures seem to have similar ancient astronomically related feast days.
Based on further reading Iโd say now that itโs not just Europe, but the marking is worldwide.
The associated geographical customs and traditions reflected both the turning landscape and changing seasons.
It was a chosen point in the solar year to acknowledge the cycle of all things.
While we can see some similarities between Bealtaine and Walpurgis, there are also differences.
Walpurgis seems to have been a blending of Christian overwriting and some of the many Pagan traditions, whereas Bealtaine is very much still Pagan.
Many less known feasts also take place throughout Europe at this time which also celebrate and acknowledge fire and seasonal change.
The Bulgarian shape-shifting dragon, Zmey, emerges, for example, to protect crops and seduce young women.
There were folk remedies to protect against his advances, including mixing wormwood and water and pouring this around a dwelling.
Interestingly, like the fairies in Irish lore, the Zmey could summon a supernatural wind which could carry a person away to the Otherworld.
In some Pagan traditions these two observances of Walpurgis and Bealtaine are merged into a festival called Vappu.
Incidentally, one of the symbols of Vappu is a mermaid which makes the Pleiades/ Belataine link very interesting.
As previously mentioned, Bealtaine is a cross-quarter day.
This is the moment in โrealโ time between an equinox and solstice.
After the 12-month Julian and Gregorian Roman calendars were adopted, all of the older, astronomical pagan feast days were merged with the liturgical year of the Christian church.
This is why so many authentic celebrations are now out of sync with the sky and earth alignments.
(May Day being considered the same feast as Bealtaine is a good example of this.)
Bear in mind, too, that the celebration we know as Bealtaine is itself an overlay upon a much more ancient observance of this time.
What that observance was, and what its rituals were, are unknown.
I don't think it is too speculative to suggest that the oral traditions of our ancient ancestors may have preserved some of the associations through time, though.
An interesting Irish account of a Bealtaine witch is recorded in the folklore archives.
The 'witch' is seen, and the events take place, on May 1st.
Here is the story for those who want to read it.
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5044694/5032632
Bealtaine has many popular customs relating to new life and fertility but there is also a darker side to this time of the year.
The basis of the following custom is to protect against this darkness and it involves both 'Blood Magic' and performing the protection spell at a specific time.
In this case, dawn.
The description comes from the Duchas.ie Schools Folklore Collection and was collected by Eamon Byrne in May 1938.
"The fairies exercise a powerful influence for evil at Bealtaine, or May time, so as a preservative against their malice and the fairy darts, which at this season wound and kill, it was the custom on May morning at sunrise, to bleed the cattle and taste of the blood mingled with milk. Men and women were also bled, and their blood was sprinkled on the ground, but this practice, however, died out, even in the remote West."
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428233/4387390
It seems that today we have many different legends, traditions and mythological archetypes bound within a seasonal narrative at Bealtaine and the many fertility and fire festivals around Europe.
While some of this is the result of recent academic comparativism, some of the blending is also due to mixing up archetypes and characters.
Having said all of that, itโs not too difficult to see where the confusion comes from.
With Queen Meave/ Medb, The May Queen, the Roman Goddess Flora, Vesna, the Slavic Goddess, the Pleiadean star spirit, Maia, who I wrote about in a previous post, and other seasonal deities, perhaps it is not surprising for people to mix these characters up.
Even the only decorated stone at Beltany stone circle is called 'The Maiden' and is the one which aligns to the Bealtaine sunrise.
That said, many of these powerful female figures do indeed share the same symbols and attributes which might hint at some root archetypal seasonal Goddess in the first place.
Flora is another goddess strongly connected to flowers as you might expect considering her association with early summer.
Her festival, The Floralia was also a celebration of fertility and love, so immediately we can notice the similarities to the various May Day and Bealtaine customs relating to the ph***ic symbol of the Maypole and the theme of new conception.
The flowers which would ring the top of the Maypole most likely stem from the festival of Flora, although today they are symbols of The May Queen and the fertility of the Goddess and land itself.
Interestingly I have come across an old Irish version of the Maypole dance being referred to as being like the movements of a serpent.
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428233/4387391/4458913
In some ways, then, the association with fairy queens, witches, and supernatural women is the surviving folkloric feminine form who has overcome the attempted oppression and demonization of the church.
In her granting favour and blessings where she comes across flowers laid out for her, we can recognise echoes of the ancient Floria festivals and the even older associations with the Pleiades and the star goddess Maia.
And as we arrive back at stellar alignments and seasons we perhaps come in contact again with the even older observations of this celebration.
(C.) David Halpin.
Image: Nymphs Dancing to Panโs Flute by Joseph Tomanek.
