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Beltane!
Beltane is a day of festivities, and a night of bonfires. The tradition is to light two bonfires and lead all your livestock between them to chase off any evil spirits that would keep them from being healthy. Young lovers, after fasting hands earlier in the day for traditional year-and-a-day marriages would leap over smaller fires together to promote fertility.
Many modern Druids will not begin their celebration of Beltane until the hawthorns are in full bloom, which can change the date of Beltane for them. The rest of us generally celebrate on May 1st, though that's not the case in the southern hemisphere - they celebrate Samhain on May 1st, and their Beltane is October 31st!
May 1st, Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day. It's known by these and other names. Beltane is a day of celebration, a day to promote the fertility of yourself, your crops, your livestock, and your gods. A common tradition on Beltane is the May Pole. A massive pole is erected, a ribbon tied to the top for each of the dancers. The dancers form a circle, boy, girl, boy, girl, and each holds a ribbon. The girls run deosil, clockwise, around the pole, weaving themselves in and out past the boys running widdershins, counter-clockwise. And so the pole is wrapped. At the end of the festival, the tube of ribbon is slid off the top of the pole and saved as a wedding gift, for it holds fertile magick!
