Edinburgh residents won’t need telling that the Beltane Fire Festival takes place tomorrow, on the eve of 1st May.
But maybe you’re less familiar with its history? Beltane is ancient Celtic fire festival and there are traces of former Beltane sites across Scotland, including one of the best known, Arthur’s Seat.
Traditionally, Beltane celebrates the entry of summer and encourages the renewal of food supply. For the growth of vegetation, moisture is just as important as sunshine, so alongside fire, water also has its place in the Beltane ritual. To the Druids, dew was the most sacred of all water, and the dew of Beltane morning was the most special. It could assure health and happiness and even beauty, for the coming year. You may still find people washing their face in the morning dew on the slopes of Arthur’s Seat on 1st May…
The modern fire festival staged on Calton Hill was first created in 1988 and is now a ticketed event attracting thousands of people to come together and celebrate the magic and ritual of Beltane.
Despite this, we’ve been unable to find many pictures from the festival in our collections. Fortunately, our fantastic press cutting collection in the Edinburgh and Scottish Collection has come to the rescue and alongside press photos and stories, there are even a couple of festival flyers. One is from the Third Annual Beltane Fire in 1990 looking for musicians with “a sense of adventure” to get involved.
Another is from Beltane 2009, almost twenty years later and shows how the festival has grown.
So, if you’re planning on going to Beltane tomorrow, we’d love to see your photos! Or maybe you have photos of Beltanes past?
Maybe you could add them to the Edinburgh Collected community archive, and help us fill this gap in our collections?
Please get in touch with informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk if you’d like to add your picture memories to Edinburgh Collected but are unsure how to start.
Tales of One City 