Belleteyn or Beltane,^[1] sometimes known as "May Day", "May Night" or "Blossoming", takes place on the night of May Eve, the night of April 30 into May 1. It is a fertility festival beginning at dusk on the 30th and continuing until the dawn of the 1st. It is also a traditional time to begin (or end) relationships of a physical nature. Food, drink and love are the order of the evening making this celebration a time of many marriages. Bonfires abound, and revellers are encouraged to jump the flames for luck and their own fertility.

This holiday of the elven calendar marks the beginning of the fifth savaed, Blathe.

Notes

• In The Last Wish, it's stated Yennefer was born on Belleteyn, and Geralt calculated that Ciri was also born near the festival.
• At one point before the Slaughter of Cintra, Geralt and Yennefer later ran into each other at a Belleteyn celebration, where the sorceress recommended that the witcher should not resign from his destiny and go to Cintra again, as bad times were coming.^[2]
• In Crossroads of Ravens, the narrator says "midway through May, at the beginning of the month of Blathe". If "the beginning" is to be understood strictly as the first day of Blathe, rather than first couple weeks, it contradicts the earlier information of Belleteyn corresponding with the night before May 1 of the human calendar.

Trivia

• Belleteyn is analogous to the real-world celtic holiday of Beltane (anglicized form of the insular Celtic "Bhealtaine" and continental Celtic "Belotenia"), which is still celebrated to this day.

Gallery

See also

• Saovine
• Imbolc
• Lammas

References