May Day: Washing your face in the dew, Beltane fires and other Scottish customs

May Day celebrations have long been held in Scotland, with their roots buried deep in the time of pagans and druids

On May 1, great fires were lit on the hilltops ahead of summer in a call for fertility, abundance and protection.

One of the great fire festivals of the Celtic year, Beltane marked the time the cattle went on to pasture, with ceremonies held around the fires to conjure good fortune and cleanse evil, harmful forces.

Meanwhile, the May dew was deemed to be the holy water of the druids, the stuff of life, which afforded health, beauty and luck for the rest of the year.

The Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill marks the night before May 1. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

In Scotland, many will remember the custom of washing your face in the May dew. In Edinburgh until recent memory, thousands headed to Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill and Blackford Hill in the early hours to take part in the ancient rite with women particularly keen on the custom.

Edinburgh poet Rober Fergusson wrote about the face washing in 1773, with one cutting from the Evening News some 200 years later recording 2,000 people having climbed Arthur’s Seat on the morning of May 1 in 1983.

“The summit of the hill was crowded with people old and young, huddled together trying to keep warm in the crisp, clear morning air,” the report said.

Alison Mitch and Lesley-Ann Mitch was their faces in the dew at the top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, May Day 1983.

May 1 was deemed an important date given it marks the midway point between the Vernal (spring) equinox and summer solstice, according to accounts. In Scotland, there is evidence that two Beltane fires were lit to drive cattle between them, with the saying “he is between two fires or between to fires of Bel” used when a man found himself in difficulty.

Through time, a basic meal was taken by those who stood by the Beltane fire, with some of the food offered to the flames.

One account from Thomas Pennant’s second tour of Scotland in the late 1700s described one Beltane gathering in Perthshire. On the fire “they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and bring besides the ingredients of the caudle plenty of beer and whisky, for each of the company must contribute something”, he wrote.

Mr Pennant continued: "The rites begin by spilling some of the caudle on the ground by way of libation: on that everyone takes a cake of oatmeal upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herd.”

Each person then turned his face to the fire before breaking off a knob and flinging it over his shoulder, while calling for the preservation of his horses, his sheep, his cattle. A similar ritual followed to call for protection from predators.

Author Anne Ross, in Folklore of the Scottish Highlands, described how Beltane was also a time of human sacrifice in Pagan times.

She said: “Human sacrifice and offerings were made, and the ritual would be followed by rejoicing and festivities of all kinds. In recent centuries, the sacrifices were replaced by token offerings.”

In Edinburgh, Beltane is marked with a huge festival on Calton Hill on April 30, with Beltane officially beginning at moonrise on May Day Eve. Through time, Beltane became a festival carried out with the “utmost secrecy” as the church began to warn against superstitious practice, according to Ross.