ALL-FOOLS’ DAY
is variously known in the Highlands as “The Day of going on Fools’ errands” (Latha na Gogaireachd), “Cuckoo Day” (Latha na Cuthaig), and “The Day of Tricks” (Latha nan Car). Its observance is on the first of April, N.S., and this argues its very recent introduction into the Highlands. The tricks and practices of the day are the same as elsewhere, the sending of acquaintances on sleeveless errands. Sometimes, but only rarely, there is some ingenuity displayed in taking advantage of local and passing events to throw the most suspicious off their guard, and send them on fools’ messages. It is not difficult to impose on men with a serious face and a plausible story, when it entails but little trouble to see if so likely a story or so pressing a message is real.
Bailc na Bealltainn.
The fourteen days preceding May-day were known as Bailc na Bealltainn, “the balk or ridge of Beltane.” The sea is then as it were awakening, and is more obedient to the winds. Balc means a ridge, also swelling, strength, onfhadh, foghail. The weather threatens frequently without breaking.
“If warm May day be swollen [threatening],
And it be dry the third day,
And it be an east wind after that,
There certainly will be fruit on trees.”[69]
Bealltainn, MAY-DAY.
The advent of summer is everywhere hailed with joy, and the day recognised as the first of the season is naturally one of the most important days in the calendar. Another day of equal importance in the Celtic year was the first of winter, and the names of the two days, Bealltainn and Samhainn, cannot be traced, like so many other notations of the year, to ecclesiastical sources. Like the names Faoilleach (the Storm month), and Iuchar (the Hot month), they are best referred to Pagan times.
Bealltainn is commonly derived from Bel teine, the fire of Baal or Belus, and is considered as sure evidence of the Phoenician origin of the sacred institutions of the Celts. It is a derivation, however, that wants all the elements of probability. There is a want of evidence that the Phoenician Baal, or any deity resembling him, was ever worshipped by the Celts, or that the fires kindled and observances practised on this day had any connection with the attributes ascribed to him; while the analogies of the Gaelic language prevent the supposition that “the fire of Baal” could be rendered “Beall-tein’.” Besides, the word is not Beall-teine, but Bealltainn, a difference in the final syllable sufficiently noticeable to a Gaelic ear. It is the difference between the single and double sound of n. Baal and Ashtoreth were the supreme male and female divinities of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, and are supposed to be personifications of the generative and receptive powers of nature, and to be identical with the sun and moon. In Hebrew and kindred languages, Baal is a mere title of honour, signifying “Lord or Possessor of,” and in Gaelic the Sun and Moon are both feminine nouns, merely descriptive of the appearance of these planets. There is nothing that indicates their ever having been looked on as divinities, or ascribing to them any attribute such as belonged to Baal. In Gaelic the noun limited or possessed always precedes the qualifying noun, and it would require strong evidence to show that “Baal’s fire” could be “Beltane” i.e. Baal-fire, and not “Tane-Bel” (Teine-Bhàil), i.e. fire of Baal. The contrast between English and Gaelic in this respect is often very striking, and a safe rule in etymology!
The final syllable is the same as in Samhainn, the end of summer, which is thought by Lhuyd, to be from fuinn (connected with the Latin finis), an end. In this case t is simply accresive. L has an attraction for t after it, as m has for b, and n for d. Beall is likely connected with the other words that have bl in their initial syllable, with a root idea of separating, parting, opening; and claims kindred with blàth, a blossom, bial, the mouth, bealach, a pass, more than with the title of a Semitic deity. It is the opening day of the year, when the rigours of winter are parted with, and the seasons, as it were, separate. Behind lay winter, cold, and unfruitfulness of the earth, but before was warmth and fertility and beauty. The final syllable has no more to do with fire than it has in gamhainn, a stirk, calltainn, a hazel tree.
It was said, with truth, that whatever day New Year day fell upon, Beltane fell on the day following. “New Year’s day to-day, Beltane to-morrow” (Nollaig an diugh, Bealltainn a màireach).
There is sometimes very cold weather at this time, and this was denoted by the expression “The mournful linnet of Beltane” (Glaisein cumhach na Bealltainn). Snow at the time was known as “Snow about the mouth of May-day” (Sneachda mu bhial na Bealltainn).
On the night preceding it, i.e. Beltane eve, witches were awake, and went about as hares, to take their produce (toradh), milk, butter, and cheese, from the cows. People who believed in their existence were as earnest to counteract their machinations. Tar was put behind the ears of the cattle, and at the root of the tail; the animals were sprinkled with urine to keep them from fighting; the house was hung with rowan-tree, etc., etc. By having a churning past and a cheese made (muidhe ’s mulchag) before sunrise, the Fairies were kept away from the farm for the rest of the year. If any came to ask for rennet (deasgainn), it should not on any account be given to them. It would be used for taking the substance out of the giver’s own dairy produce.
When the day arrived, it was necessary, whatever the state of the weather, though people sank ankle deep in snow, or (as the Gaelic idiom has it), though snow came over the shoes, to get the cattle away to the summer pastures among the hills (àiridh).
No fire on this, or any other first day of a quarter of the year (latha ceann raidhe), was given out of the house. It gave the borrower the power of taking the milk from the lender’s cows.
People had a feast in their houses with better food than ordinary. The arrival of the cuckoo was looked for, and boys shouted “Cuckoo! cried the ‘gowk’ on yellow Beltane day” (Gug-ùg ars’ a Chuthag latha buidhe Bealltainn).
In the Statistical Account of Scotland, 1794, XI. 620, there is a custom described, as existing at Callander in Perthshire, of boys going on this day to the moors, and kneading a cake of oatmeal, one part of which was daubed black. The bread was then put in a bonnet, from which each drew a piece. The boy, to whose share the black piece falls, is obliged to leap three times through the flames, at which the repast was prepared. The minister of Logierait (V. 84), says the festivities of the day were chiefly observed by herdsmen, and Pennant (Tour, p. 90), describes a similar feast of herdsmen, in which pieces of the cake were offered to the fox, hoodie-crow, eagle, etc., with a request that they would avoid the cattle during the year. In the south of Ireland, we are told (vide Brand on May-day customs), cows were made to leap over lighted straw. All this has been referred to Baal and human sacrifices, and the going through the fire and other observances, have been assumed to be the remains of Syrian rites. They seem to be nothing but parts of the numerous superstitious observances for the saining of cattle.
A Sop seilbhe, or “Possession Wisp,” was burned on land, of which possession was to be taken at Whitsunday. The wisp was of fodder or heather. The burning of it on the land, as already explained, insured possession (bha e ceangailte aige tuille).
Céitein, MONTH OF MAY.
This is the month of which Beltane day, O.S., forms the centre, and consists of the last fourteen days of spring, and the first fourteen days of summer. Its derivation is from ceud, first, it being the beginning of the summer season. It is identical with the present month of May. “Better is snow in May, than to be without rain” (’S fhearr sneachda sa Céitein na bhi gun uisge).
The month preceding Beltane was called Céitein na h-òinsich, “the May-days of the silly one,” the word òinseach denoting both a silly woman and a cuckoo. The habits of the bird, which has no nest of its own, and goes about all day aimlessly uttering its peculiar note, has earned for it the reputation of being silly, as is witnessed also by the Scotch word gowk, and premature glimpses of fine weather are supposed to mislead it as to the advent of May.