ABSTRACT
A large proportion of medieval documents mentioning the hill of Uisneach, co. Westmeath, Ireland, tend to associate it with the Gaelic/Celtic festival of Bealtaine (anglicized Beltaine or Beltane), in early May. Modern folklore and contemporary Pagan or pseudo-Pagan tradition still tend to connect the hill with this specific point in time. The Irish traditional year used to be divided into four seasons, each beginning with one specific festival (Samhain or Samain in early November, Imbolc or Saint Brigid’s Day in early February, Bealtaine in early May and Lughnasa or Lugnasad in early August). This chapter discusses the idea according to which Uisneach was (and still is) intimately connected with the Irish festival of May. It provides an in-depth study of the festival of Bealtaine, both from a mythological and a folkloric perspective. It also studies the place in time of the four Irish festivals and provides a new theory explaining why the four Irish traditional seasons do not correspond to the seasons celebrated today in contemporary Western societies.
