Also known as Beltane, Walpurgisnacht, Walburga, Rudemas, Floarlia, Mayday*, May Eve* (*these names equate to the Northern Hemisphere where Baeltaine falls on 30 April).
Deities: Flora, Walpurga, Maia, Demeter, Danu, Bel, Balor, Pan, Cernunnos, Jack-in-the-Green.
Colours: Green, gold, red, white.
Incense: Musk, vanilla, rose, patchouli, woodruff, galangal, oak.
Traditional Motifs: Ribbons, early summer flowers, round breads, apples, cattle and goats, bonfires, May Pole* (*as in the Northern Hemisphere this festival falls on 30 April).

Bealtaine is derived from the Irish Gaelic "Bealtaine" meaning "Bel-fire", and is named after the Celtic God of Light being Bel, Beli or Balor. Bealtaine marks the start of Summer and celebrations would begin at sundown of the preceding day where Druids kindled great bale fires on the tops of the nearest beacon hill. These need-fires had healing properties, and people would jump through the flames to ensure protection or drive their cattle between two such bonfires before taking them to their summer pastures.

Bealtaine is the most exciting of the festival. Nature is flourishing, and the blood beats strongly in human and beast. Everywhere there are signs of growth and the scents of Spring flowers. It seems easy to love everything and everyone. This time was made for being joyful and for feeling good, and a time for love, which is represented in the divine union of the Goddess and God.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the following day of this festival is 1 May, May Day, a day which was associated with fertility and where the crowning of the May Queen, a young woman of child-bearing age, who would represent the young Goddess.

Another tradition is May-pole dancing. Where the May Queen symbolises the Goddess, the May-pole symbolises the God. The ribbons woven about the pole by dancers celebrate the fertility of the God with one circle of dancers moving clockwise (the direction of life in the Northern Hemisphere) and the other circle moving anticlockwise (the direction of death and destruction in the Northern Hemisphere). Therefore, the dancers interweave the forces of life and death, creation and destruction, recognising that death is the inevitable outcome of life and after death, life is renewed. The God is the phallic creator God, but also the Lord of the Dead.

The above information has come from a number of sources including "Magick without Peers" by Ariadne Rainbird and David Rankine, as well as articles written by Mike Nichols.