Beltane (April 30) marks the emergence of the young God into manhood. Stirred by the energies at work in nature, He desires the Goddess. They fall in love, lie among the grasses and blossoms, and unite. The Goddess becomes pregnant of the God. The Wiccans celebrate the symbol of her fertility in ritual.
Beltane (also known as May Day) has long been marked with feasts and rituals. May poles, supremely phallic symbols, where the focal point of old English village rituals. Many persons rose at dawn to gather flowers and green branches from the fields and gardens using them to decorate the May Pole, their homes and themselves.

The flowers and greenery symbolize the Goddess; the May pole the God. Beltane marks the return of vitality, of passion and hopes consummated.

May poles are sometimes used by Wiccans today during Beltane rituals, but the cauldron is a more common focal point of ceremony. It represents, of course, the Goddess–the essence of womanhood, the end of all desire, the equal but opposite of the May pole, symbolic of the God.

-From:Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

Beltane, or May Day–May 1
Beltane (pronounced BEL-tane) named after the sun God Belenos, marked the beginning of the summer season, when Celtic farmers took their livestock out to pasture. The livestock would be driving between the fires as a ritual of cleansing and fertility.
As the their of the great Celtic fire festivals, Beltane occurs halfway around the year from Samhain, and just as Samhain represents the end of summer, this festival represents the beginning. Even for modern pagans who see the year as divided into four seasons, this is a joyful time of celebrating the arrival of the hottest of the seasons.
Beltane is the happiest and friskiest of the Sabbats. In ancient times, the focus of this Sabbat was fertility, and people would take this literally, often spending the night out in the fertility of the land. Among modern urban pagans, the theme of the pagans, the theme of fertility can still be meaningful, not only in a literal sense for those who want to have babies but in a symbolic sense for people who are working toward manifesting something new in their lives.
Beltane survived in Christian times as May Day, a secularized festival of the coming of spring. Perhaps the most familiar May Day ceremony involves the Maypole dance, in which young couples dance around a beautiful pole, weaving ribbons together to decorate it. The fertility origins of this festival survive in the phallic symbolism of the pole (the God) penetrating the soil of the earth (the Goddess).

- From: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism by Carl McColman

And there it is from two of my favorite books to consult on this kind of stuff. Let the fun begin!

I think these two readings are a great look at the holiday. Please leave comments if you’d like. This same post will cycle around every year on the day of Beltane.