UberPocky

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.

Ostara (circa March 21), the Spring Equinox, also known as Spring, Rites of Spring and Eostra’s Day, marks the first say of true spring. The energies of nature subtly shift from the sluggishness of winter to the exuberant expansion of spring. The Goddess blankets the Earth with fertility, bursting forth from Her sleep, as the God stretches and grows to maturity. He walks the greening fields and delights in the abundance of nature. On Ostara the hours of night and day are equal. Light is overtaking darkness; the Goddess and God impel the wild creatures of the earth to reproduce.This is a time of beginnings, of action, of planting spells for future gains, and of tending ritual gardens.

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

Ostara (pronounced OH-star-uh) took its name from the Germanic Goddess of spring, the dawn, and new beginnings. Traditionally, her sacred objects included the egg and the rabbit. Her name can also be spelled Eostre. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how Ostara has survived in Christianity. The Christian festival that celebrates Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is known as Easter, a holiday that takes it’s name from a pagan Goddess. Easter customs include coloring eggs and telling children the story of a bunny that will bring them sweets. It’s interesting to note how ancient pagan traditions survived into modern culture, even after Christianity became the mainstream religion. Of course, today’s pagans often reclaim these ancient customs, only within the context of the nature spirituality.

For pagans, the vernal (spring) equinox continues Imbolc’s themes of new beginnings and new birth. Obviously, it is related to the agricultural cycle of sowing and planting seeds. It is also a time of balance because day and night are equal in length on this date. This equinox symbolizes not only the beginning of the new growing season but also the culmination of the dark half of the year. In ritual terms, this is a god time for celebrating balance and equilibrium while resolving to nurture all the “seeds” that have been planted in the preceding dark half of the year. Even modern urban pagans who don’t plant crops still have projects and plans in their lives; this Sabbat is a time for celebrating such endeavors and asking for spiritual blessings upon them.

- 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. One last note I’d like to add about Easter. Easter is a floating holiday. Everyone knows this, but very few knows how it is scheduled. Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon (also a pagan holiday) after Ostara.

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 Ostara.