☀️ Beltane Oatcakes with Whipped Cream

Weaving Community in a Three-Dimensional World 💃🌸🔥

Hello my friends,

This Thursday was May Day, also known as Beltane, the Gaelic festival marking the start of summer (and it is not too late to celebrate!).

This holiday, which originated in ancient Ireland, means “bright fire.”

Of all the pagan holidays, it might be the sassiest one.

At its core, Beltane celebrates the sun’s return—the bright fire we depend on for fertility in the season ahead. Historically, and still today, communities gather to perform rituals meant to ensure abundance in gardens, fields, and yes, beds.

This includes making Beltane oatcakes (recipe below)—round like the sun, with oats to symbolize fertility. Fresh milk and cream, abundant thanks to the spring calves and lambs, were poured on the earth or whipped into a treat to indulge in. Today, we dip our oatcakes in whipped cream.

Traditionally, bonfires blazed until sunrise, and elders turned a blind eye as young adults wandered off into the woods to couple. (It’s said that nine months after Beltane, midwives noticed an uptick in births.)

But perhaps my favorite ritual of all is the Maypole dance.

I first danced around the maypole at my public elementary school’s annual May Day celebration. It was billed as a spring party where our parents could attend, and we were invited to wear floral. (No doubt, my mother seized the opportunity to stuff my twin sister and me—ragtag tomboys—into matching Laura Ashley dresses.)

I vividly remember the canopy of ribbons, weaving them over and under my classmates and their parents.

I didn’t revisit the tradition until I moved to Ithaca, where my daughters’ preschool teacher hosted a Maypole dance one late spring.

Eight years later, I still mark this time of year with the Maypole. While it’s not quite Summer in these northern parts, it always lands when the first spring leaves burst open and the crabapple blossoms unfurl.

Dancing the Maypole is one of the most beautiful metaphors for community I know—and one I’m hard-pressed to pass up. It’s a delightful tradition I want to share with my children, and a much-needed infusion of connection as we emerge from hibernation.

The dance itself varies, and in some places it’s done to live folk music.

In my experience, each dancer holds a ribbon attached to the top of a tall pole (which is a ritual in itself: choosing the tree, sizing the pole, digging a hole, and planting it safely so it doesn’t topple). When the ribbons are stretched out, an agile young climber hoists a crown of flowers over top, which is held up by the ribbons.

The “dance” begins. There might be singing, drumming or instruments—or both! Every other person moves clockwise, while those in between move counterclockwise. As you move around the circle, you alternate going over and under the person approaching you.

At first, it’s chaotic and filled with laughter. The ribbons wound around the top of the pole are a mess. But then, we find our rhythm. A tight, woven pattern begins to emerge—a true work of he(art).

As the ribbons wrap around the pole, the flower crown lowers down until it finally touches the earth. (That, in and of itself, is a pretty obvious symbol of fertility.)

To me, the overall May Pole dance feels like the story of building friendship. Of building community. It takes time and trust. It takes working together.

In a world saturated with two-dimensional screens and spaces, division and doom-scrolling, these small but mighty acts of joyfully coming together are the balm our hearts need.

And they ripple outward.

So as you dance, cry, laugh, growl, howl, scream, and celebrate your way into summer, don’t forget to gather with your people and neighbors, and tend the bright fires in your hearts.

♡ Emma

BELTANE OATCAKES WITH WHIPPED CREAM

Recipe from Seasonal Family Almanac: Recipes, Rituals, and Crafts for Celebrating the Magic of the Year

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