BELTEIN, BEI;TANE, BEIL'TINE, REAL'TAINN, the name of a heathen festival once common to all the Celtic nations, and traces of which have survived to the present day. The name is derived from tin or Leine, fire, and Beal or Beil, the Celtic god of light or sun-god, a deity mentioned by Ausonius (309-92 A.D.) and Tertullian (who flourished during thy first half of the 3d c.), as well as on several ancient inscriptions, as Belenus or Bel inns. B. thus means " Beal's fire," and belonos to that sun and fire worship which has always been one of the must prominent forms of polytheism. The great festival of this worship among the Celtic nations was held in the beginning of May, but there seems to been a somewhat similar observance in the beginning of November (the begin ning, and the end of wanner). On such occasions, all the fires in the district were extinguished (while We system was in full force, even death was thepenalty of neglect); the needfire (q.v.) was then kindled with great solemnity, and sacrifices were offered— latterly. perhaps. of animals. but originally, there can he little doubt, of human beings. From this sacrificial fire the domestic hearths were rekindled.
The earliest mention of B. is found by Cormac, archbishop of Cashel in the begin ning of the 10th century. A relic of this festival, as practiced in some parts of the high lands of Scotland about the beginning of the 19th c., is thus described: " The young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors on the 1st of May. They cut a table in the green sod. of n round figure. cutting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire. and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up. they divide the cake in so many por tions, 11:4 similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly black.. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is entitled to, the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person, who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favor they mean to implore in rendering the year productive. The devoted person is compelled to leap three times over the themes,' times through the fire is clearly a symbolical sacrifice, and there was doubtless a time when the victim was bound on the pile, and burned. See SACRIFICE.
It has been usual to identify the worship of the Celtic Beal with that of the Baal (q.v.) or Bel of the Phenicians and other Semitic nations. It is unnecessary, how ever, to go beyond the family of nations to which the Celts belong (see ARYANS), in order to tind analogies either for the name or the thing. J. Grimm (Deutsche Mytho logie, i. 208, 581) iaentifies the Celtic Beal not only with the Slavonic Belbog or Bjelbog (in which name the syllable bel or We/ means white. and bog, god), but also with the Scandinavian and Teutonic Balder (q.v.) or Falun-, whose name appears under the form of 13aldaz (the white or bright day), and who appears to have been also extensively worshiped under the name of l'hol or Pol. The universality all over Europe in heathen times of the worship of these personifications of the sun and of light through the kiudling of tires and other rites, is testified by the yet surviving practice of periodically lighting bonfires (q.v.). The more marked turning points of the seasons would naturally determine the times of these festivals. The two solstices at midwinter (see YULE) and midsummer, and the beginning and end of summer, would be among the chief seasons. The periods of observance, which varied, no doubt. originally, more or less in different places, were still further disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. enable to extirpate these rites, the church sought to Christianize them by associating them with rites of her own, and for this purpose either appointed a church-festival at the time of the heathen one, or endeavored to shift the time of the heathen observance to that of au alteady tixed church-festival. All over the s. of Germany, the great bonfire celebration was held .fit midsummer (Johannkfeuer), [see Joirc's, EVE OF ST.1—a relic, probably, of the sun-festival of the summer solstice: throughout the n. of Germany, it was held at Easter. It is probable that this fire festival (Osterleuer) of Ostara—a principal deity among the Saxons and Angles—had been originally held on the 1st of May, and was shitted so as to coincide with the church-festival now known as Easter (q.v.; see also WAI,PCRGA, ST.). The seriousness and enthusiasm with which these observances continued to be celebrated in the 16th and 17th c., began afterwards to decline, and the kindling of bonfires has been mostly put down by the governments; the earlier interdicts alleging the unchristian nature of• the rites; the later, the danger occasioned to the forests.