May is another name for Hawthorn and this Beltaine Eve I've collected flowers from my Hawthorn Trees in my Garden to decorate my home and Altars. It's an old tradition to bring Hawthorn into the house at Beltaine and it was also once used to decorate Maypoles. It was said to be bad luck to bring it into the house at any other time of the year, and maybe that's because Hawthorn is one of the Fairy Triad of treees "Oak, Ash and Thorn" and upsetting the Fairies was something no

This festival marks the height of Spring; the threat of frost has passed and the fertility of the land has been confirmed by the new growth returning to the trees, hedgerows and land, and the new births of farm and wild animals. Farm animals that have been housed overwinter are sent to pasture as there is now enough grass to feed them without supplementation. In earlier times they would have on the way to the fields been driven between bonfires with herbs smoking to free the