Editing May Day (section)

==Celtic regions==
=== Ireland ===
[[File:2022 Festival of Fires on Hill of Uisneach.jpg|thumb|''Bealtaine'' bonfire at [[Uisneach]] in Ireland, 2022]]
{{main|Beltane}}
In Ireland, May Day has long been celebrated as the festival of ''[[Bealtaine]]''. It marks the beginning of summer and historically was when cattle were [[Transhumance|driven out]] to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people and crops, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, whose flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Bealtaine bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the {{lang|ga|[[aos sí]]}}, the 'spirits' or 'fairies'. Doors, windows, byres and cattle would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush: typically a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rushlights. [[Holy well]]s were also visited, while Bealtaine [[dew]] was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness.

For almost two centuries, the Dublin suburb of [[Finglas]] was well known for its "May Games" and its maypole "was one of the last to survive in Dublin", according to historian Michael J. Tutty.{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}}
Throughout the eighteenth century, the Finglas maypole was at the centre of a week of festivity which included "the playing of games, various competitions, and, according to one account the crowning of 'Queen of the May'."{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}} In a letter written by [[Henry Charles Sirr (town major)|Major Sirr]] on 2 May 1803 (shortly after the turbulent [[1798 Rebellion]]), he writes:<blockquote>Godfrey and I went to Finglass and found everything in order. Major Wilkinson, who resides, there, waited upon me... and told me there was not the smallest occasion for military aid nor was there the least possibility of any disturbance... I ordered the guard to return to Dublin and these gentlemen and their families seemed quite rejoiced that the old custom of Maying was not to be interrupted in Finglass where that amusement has been kept up for a century past without ever being curbed before.{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}}</blockquote>Public celebrations of Bealtaine fell out of popularity by the 20th century and many old traditions are no longer widely observed. The tradition of a May Bush was reported as being suppressed by law and the magistrates in [[Dublin]] in the 18th century.<ref>{{cite news|title= Dublin|newspaper= Hibernian Journal; or, Chronicle of Liberty|date= 1 May 1776|page= 5}}</ref> The tradition of lighting bonfires has survived in parts of the country,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local/warning-issued-ahead-of-limerick-s-may-eve-bonfires-1-5044472 |title=Warning issued ahead of Limerick's May Eve bonfires |last=Hurley |first=David |date=30 April 2013 |publisher=Limerick Leader |url-access=subscription |access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref> and other traditions continue to be revived as local cultural events.

===Scotland===
[[File:Beltane Festival 2019 Procession of the May Queen 02.jpg|thumb|[[Beltane Fire Festival]] in Edinburgh, Scotland, 2019]]
May Day has been celebrated in [[Scotland]] for centuries. It was previously closely associated with the [[Beltane]] festival.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/beltane |title=Dictionary of the Scots Language :: DOST :: Beltane n. |website=dsl.ac.uk}}</ref> Reference to this earlier celebration is found in poem 'Peblis to the Play', contained in the [[Maitland Manuscripts]] of 15th- and 16th-century Scots poetry:

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">At Beltane, quhen ilk bodie bownis
To Peblis to the Play,
To heir the singin and the soundis;
The solace, suth to say,
Be firth and forrest furth they found
Thay graythis tham full gay;
God wait that wald they do that stound,
For it was their feast day the day they celebrate May Day,
Thay said, [...]</poem>

The poem describes the celebration in the town of [[Peebles]] in the [[Scottish Borders]], which continues to stage a parade and pageant each year, including the annual 'Common Riding', which takes place in many towns throughout the Borders. As well as the crowning of a Beltane Queen each year, it is custom to sing 'The Beltane Song'.<ref name="tracscotland.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.tracscotland.org/sites/default/files/May%20Songs%20and%20Rhymes_0.pdf |title=The Songs and Rhymes of May |website=Traditional Arts & Culture Scotland |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215143738/http://www.tracscotland.org/sites/default/files/May%20Songs%20and%20Rhymes_0.pdf |archive-date=15 February 2018 |access-date=15 February 2018}}</ref>

[[John Jamieson]], in his ''Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language'' (1808) describes some of the May Day/Beltane customs which persisted in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in parts of Scotland, which he noted were beginning to die out.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scotsdictionary.com/ |title=Jamieson's Dictionary Online |website=scotsdictionary.com}}</ref> In the nineteenth century, folklorist [[Alexander Carmichael]] (1832&ndash;1912), collected the song ''Am Beannachadh Bealltain'' (''The Beltane Blessing'') in his ''[[Carmina Gadelica]]'', which he heard from a [[Crofting|crofter]] in [[South Uist]].<ref name="tracscotland.org" />

Scottish May Day/Beltane celebrations have been somewhat revived since the late twentieth century. Both [[Edinburgh]] and [[Glasgow]] organise May Day festivals and rallies. In [[Edinburgh]], the [[Beltane Fire Festival]] is held on the evening of May eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's [[Calton Hill]]. An older Edinburgh tradition has it that young women who climb [[Arthur's Seat]] and wash their faces in the morning dew will have lifelong beauty. At the [[University of St Andrews]], some of the students gather on the beach late on 30 April and run into the [[North Sea]] at sunrise on May Day, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration.

=== Wales ===
In Wales, the first day of May is known as ''[[Calan Mai]]'' or ''Calan Haf'', and parallels the festival of Beltane and other May Day traditions in Europe.

Traditions would start the night before (''Nos Galan Haf'') with bonfires, and is considered a ''Ysbrydnos'' or ''spirit night'' when people would gather [[Crataegus|hawthorn]] (''draenen wen'') and flowers to decorate their houses, celebrating new growth and fertility. While on May Day celebrations would include summer dancing (''dawnsio haf'') and May carols (''carolau mai'' or ''carolau haf'') othertimes referred to as "singing under the wall" (''canu dan y pared),'' May Day was also a time for officially opening a village green (twmpath chwarae).