- Symbolism: The Union of the Goddess and the God, Fertility in all things. A time of making things fertile.
- Symbols: Maypole, Mayday baskets, bonfires, flowers, ribbons, flower crowns, fairies.
- Food: dairy foods, foods made with flowers, red fruits such as strawberries and cherries, green herbal salads, red or pink wine punch, maybowl (an icebowl decorated with spring flowers and filled with maywine), large round oatmeal or barley cakes (known as Beltane cakes or Bannocks), shellfish and other aphrodisiacs.
- Herbs: Rose, elder, mugwort, mint, lily of the valley, foxglove, broom, hawthorne, almond, angelica, bluebells, daisy, marigold, frankincense, lilac, yellow cowslips, thyme.
- Incense and oils: Rose, sandalwood, frankincense, lilac, mint.
- Colors: Red, white, green, yellow.
- Stones: Emerald, malachite, carnelian, amber, sapphire, rose quartz.
- Animals: bee, goat, cat, lynx, horse, leopard, swallow, dove, swan.
- Mythical creatures: Faeries, Pegasus, satyrs, giants.
- Some appropriate Goddesses: all fertility, flower, song & dance, hunting, and virgin-mother Goddesses; Aphrodite (Greek), Artemis (Greek), Belili (Sumerian), Bloddeuwedd (Welsh), Cybele (Greek), Damara (English), Danu (Irish), Diana (Greek), Fand (Manx-Irish), Flidais (Irish), Flora (Roman), Frigg/Freya (Norse), Ishtar (Assyro-Babylonian), Rhea (Greek), Rhiannon (Welsh), Venus (Roman)
- Some appropriate Gods: all fertility, love, hunting, and young father Gods; Baal (Phoenician), Bel (Sumerian), Cernunnos (Celtic), Cupid (Roman), Eros (Greek), Faunus (Roman), Frey (Norse), The Great Horned God (European), Herne (English), Orion (Greek), Pan (Greek)
- Decorations: maypole, lots of flowers, flower wreaths, ribbons.
- Activities: making Maybaskets, Maypole dancing, jumping bonfires, May Water activities as listed above, gathering flowers, enacting the Great Rite, blessing your garden by making love in it.
- Spell/ritual work: youthful exuberance, sensuality, pleasure, crop blessings, creative endeavors.
may 20 2012 ∞
may 22 2012 +
may 22 2012 +