[Adopted in Lowland Scotch from Gaelic bealltainn, bealtuinn (in Irish bealltaine, Manx boaltinn, boaldyn) the Celtic name of the first of May, the beginning of summer.
OIr. forms are beltene (in a text), belltaine, beltine in Cormac’s Glossary (9th to 12th c.). The first is prob. the earliest quotable form of the word, of which the original meaning seems to have been unknown even to the glossarist, since he makes a desperate guess at it by transposing bel-tine or bil-tene into tene-bil, and explaining bil as ‘Bil from Bial, i.e., an idol god,’ evidently meaning the Bel, or Baal, of the Old Testament: so that bel-tene became ‘fire of Bel,’ or (?) ‘Baal.’ Dr. Whitley Stokes has shown that the latter part of the word is not teine ‘fire,’ since this is a -t stem (OIr. tene, tened), while Beltene is a feminine -ya stem. Whether it can be a parallel derivative of the same root, or whether, as is more likely, the notion that -taine was = teine ‘fire’ is due merely to ‘popular etymology’ cannot be determined. (The ancient Gaels kindled bonfires not only on Beltane, but also on Lammas and Hallowmas.) The rubbish about Baal, Bel, Belus, imported into the word from the Old Testament and classical antiquity, is outside the scope of scientific etymology.]
1. The first day of May (reckoned since 1752 according to Old Style); Old May-day. The quarter-days anciently in Scotland were Hallowmas, Candlemas, Beltane, and Lammas. Beltane day (Gael. la bealltainn) appears sometimes to have been identified with the nearest Church Feast, the Invention of the Cross (May 3rd), and the name seems even to have been applied to Whitsunday (May 15th), when this took its place as term day.
1424. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 19. And the nest be funden in the Trees at Beltane the trees sall be foirfaulted to the King.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot., XVII. ii. (Jam.). On Beltane day, in the yeir nixt followyng, callit the Inventioun of the haly Croce.
a. 1500. Peblis to Play, i. 1. At Beltane, quhen ilk bodie bownis To Peblis to the Play.
1716. Martin, West. Isles Scotl., 240. In the Highlands, the first day of May is still called La Baaltine—corruptly Beltan-day.
1721. Kelly, Sc. Proverbs, 376 (Jam.). You have skill of man and beast, you was born between the Beltans; i. e. the first and eighth of May.
a. 1835. Motherwell, Jeanie Morrison, 5. The fire that’s blawn on Beltane e’en May weel be black gin Yule.
1862. Hislop’s Prov. Scotl., 8. A gowk at Yule ’ll no be bright at Beltane.
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. xiii. 469. The old quarterly terms for paying the School fees were Lammas, Hallowmas, Candlemas and Beltane.
ǁ 2. Name of an ancient Celtic anniversary celebration on May-day, in connection with which great bonfires were kindled on the hills.
This use of the word appears in English much later than the preceding, and only as an alien term applied to the Celtic custom; it may be the original use in Celtic. Cormac’s Glossary explains belltaine as ‘two fires which the Druids used to make, and they used to bring the cattle [as a safe-guard] against the diseases of each year to those fires.’ Also under Bil, ‘a fire was kindled in his name at the beginning of summer always, and cattle were driven between the two fires.’ Various accounts of Beltane observances lingering in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, are to be found in 18th-c. writers, and esp. in the old Statistical Accts. of Scotland, 1794–99. A large number of these are collected in Jamieson.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1774), 42. The superstition of the Bel-tein was kept up. Ibid. (Jam.). On the first of May the herdsmen of every village hold their Bel-tein or rural sacrifice.
a. 1795. Statist. Acc. Scotl., V. 84 (Logierait, Perthsh.), On the first of May, Old Style, a festival called Beltan is annually held here.
1807. Byron, Oscar of Alva, lv. For him thy beltane yet may burn.
b. attrib., as in Beltane fire, games, etc.
1801. Scott, Glenfinlas. How blazed Lord Ronald’s beltane tree. Ibid. (1810), Lady of L., II. xv. When at Beltane game, Thou ledst the dance with Malcolm Græme. Ibid. (1814), Ld. Isles, I. viii. The shepherd lights his beltane fire.
1883. W. Sikes, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 331. The time when the Beltane fires … were lit near this well on Midsummer-eve.
