A Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year since 1988 during the night of 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended by up to 15, 000 people.

Lore has it that it is very unlucky to cut the tree at any time other than when it is in bloom, however during this time it is commonly cut and decorated as a May Bush ( see Beltane ).

A variety of ritual occasions call for the Great Rite to be performed, such as during the festival of Beltane on or about May 1 in the northern hemisphere and November 1 in the southern hemisphere.

The National Monument during the Beltane Fire Festival

** Eve of Beltane ( Celtic Druidic holiday )

Today, Beltane is also observed as a religious festival by Celtic neopagans.

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night.

Although its origins are unclear, it most likely stems from an ancient fertility rite, perhaps the Celtic festival of Beltane.

This was one of the few Celtic festivals with no connection to Christianity and patterned on Beltane.

Similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February ( near Imbolc or Candlemas ) and continues until early May ( Beltane ).

Some point to specific Celtic origins, linked to the Celtic custom of observing various festivals at three-month intervals: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.

Some of her songs are about Celtic feast days such as All Souls Night about Samhain on The Visit CD which featured in the erotic thriller film Jade starring David Caruso and " Huron Beltane Fire Dance " on the Parallel Dreams CD.

This is a revival of the ancient Celtic May Day festival of Beltane that was held on Calton Hill.

Its name is believed to be linked to the Celtic festival of fertility known as ' Beltane '.

Beltane () is the anglicised spelling of the Goidelic name for either the month of May or the festival held on the first day of May.

According to Geoffrey Keating, the main Beltane fire in medieval Ireland was on the hill of Uisneach, in what is now County Westmeath.

There is no corroborating reference to the Beltane fires at Uisneach in the annals, so Keating's claims cannot be proven.

The town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds a traditional week-long " Beltane Fair " every year in June, when a local girl is crowned Beltane Queen on the steps of the parish church.

While inspired by traditional Beltane, this festival is a modern arts and cultural event ( compared by organizers to the American Burning Man festival ) which incorporates myth and drama from a variety of world cultures and diverse literary sources.

The lighting of a community Beltane fire from which each hearth fire is then relit is observed today in some parts of the Gaelic diaspora, though in most of these cases it is a cultural revival rather than an unbroken survival of the ancient tradition.

Although the holiday may use features of the Gaelic Beltane, such as the bonfire, it is more alike the Germanic May Day festival, both in its significance ( focusing on fertility ) and its rituals ( such as maypole dancing ).

Among the Wiccan Sabbats, Beltane is a cross-quarter day ; it is celebrated in the northern hemisphere on 1 May and in the southern hemisphere on 1 November.

Beltane was formerly spelt Bealtuinn in Scottish Gaelic ; in Manx it is spelt Boaltinn or Boaldyn.

* May 1 in the Irish calendar is Beltane ( Bealtaine ), the first day of Summer, and a public holiday is held on the first Monday in May.

It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane.

In Edinburgh, the Beltane Fire Festival is held on the evening of May eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's Calton Hill.

It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the spring festival of Beltane, which Wiccans celebrate as a festival of light and fertility.

The Gaelic Otherworld is seen as closer at the times of dusk and dawn, therefore this is a special time to the aos sí, as are some festivals such as Samhain, Beltane and Midsummer.

It is seen as one of the two most auspicious times for handfasting, the other being at Beltane.

Supposedly in ancient times, Beltane rites were observed on the summit.

Beltane was an ancient Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Beltane and Samhain were the leading terminal dates of the civil year in medieval Ireland, though the latter festival was the more important.

Wiccans adopted the name Beltane for their May festival.

Like the festival of Samhain, opposite Beltane on 31 October, Beltane was also a time when the Otherworld was seen as particularly close at hand.

The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today.

Ronald Hutton notes that while medieval Irish authors do attribute a historical pagan significance to the Beltane festival, they are silent in this respect in regard to Samhain, apparently because no tradition of pagan ritual had survived into the Christian period.

In certain areas of Ireland, particularly in Limerick, bonfires are also held on 30 April to celebrate the festival of Beltane.

The annual local festival in Peebles is called the Beltane, and involves ( as with many Borders festivals ) a Common Riding.

To signal the coming of summer and the return of real warmth, on Beltane ( Bel's Fire ), the May Day festival time, dances such as the ' Obby ' Oss dance festival at Padstow in Cornwall are held with the maypole as its focus point.

Beltane and Beltane-based festivals are held by some Neopagans.

The largest of these is the Beltane Fire Festival held on April 30 each year, attended by over 12, 000 people.

She is also guardian to animals throughout the winter, and returns to the earth by turning to stone on Beltane Eve.

In 2000 he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal, Scotland's supreme academic accolade, by Queen Elizabeth II, the only historian winner to date, and in 2005 was appointed OBE in the New Years Honours List for ' services to Scottish history '. In 2012 Devine won the Senior Royal Society of Edinburgh / Beltane Prize for Excellence in Public Engagement and in that year too the Society's Inaugural Sir Walter Scott Senior Prize for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts.