{"id":18977,"date":"2026-05-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=18977"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:13:25","slug":"beltane-bash-pagan-pride-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=18977","title":{"rendered":"Beltane Bash – Pagan Pride 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bloomsbury, London<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beltane
Beltane Bash – Pagan Pride 2005: Spiral dance around the fountain in Russell Square<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beltane<\/a> was an ancient Gaelic Festival to mark the beginning of Summer and was celebrated in Ireland and Scotland on May 1st, but the whole month of May was the month of Beltane, and this London celebration on Sunday 29 May 2005 took place on the last Sunday of Beltane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beltane<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was when cattle were taken to higher Summer pastures and various fires and rituals were performed “to protect cattle, people and crops, and to encourage growth<\/em>.” There was also a great deal of feasting and merry-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beltane<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beltane was still celebrated in many places in the Victorian era and attracted the attention of folklorists recording its dying practices. But the mid twentieth century saw its revival in cultural festivals in some towns including in the Gaelic diaspora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beltane
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Beltane
The Green Lady<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Celebrations have also been revived in Neopaganist events such as this annual event in London which I photographed most years from 2004 to 2010, but there are other celebrations in various venues across the country and wider, mainly around the start of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m unsure if the Pagan Pride Parade still takes place in London. The first was in 1998 and there was a parade in London in 2019, but I don’t know if there have been more since Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the text I wrote in 2005 – and a link to more pictures from the day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beltane Bash – Pagan Pride<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bloomsbury<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Beltane Bash takes place annually in London during late May, and is a gathering of “pagans of all traditions, whether they be witches, wiccans, druids, odinists, asatru, shamans and Egyptian traditions” to celebrate the changing seasons of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The event starts with a Pagan Pride Parade around Bloomsbury, with a dance and a certain amount of splashing around the fountain in the middle of Russell Square. The fountains have a number of jets which rise and fall, and some play is made of this in the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The procession, led by the Green Lady, includes the Jack In The Green – a dancing bush – along with a whole band of Green Men, the Bogie drummers, Giants including Herne, Lord of the Forests, the Ravens and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beltane Bash is also a fund-raising event, helping to ensure the future of an area of 25 acres of ancient woodland, Raven’s Wood, near Tring in Buckinghamshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more pictures on My London Diary on most May pages from 2004 to 2010. Those from 2005 start here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomsbury, London Beltane was an ancient Gaelic Festival to mark the beginning of Summer and was celebrated in Ireland and Scotland on May 1st, but the whole month of May was the month of Beltane, and this London celebration on Sunday 29 May 2005 took place on the last Sunday of Beltane. It was when … Continue reading Beltane Bash – Pagan Pride 2005<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[24358,12543,8302,2406,12545,3849,24363,16770,12548,24365,12547,17,1343,24366,80,24361,8301,24357,83,16773,1322,24362,24364,24360,24359],"class_list":["post-18977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-londonphotos","category-my-own-work","tag-asatru","tag-beltane","tag-beltane-bash","tag-bloomsbury","tag-conway-hall","tag-druids","tag-egyptian-traditions","tag-giants","tag-green-lady","tag-herne","tag-jack-in-the-green","tag-london","tag-london-photos","tag-lord-of-the-forests","tag-my-london-diary","tag-odinists","tag-pagan-pride","tag-pagan-pride-parade","tag-peter-marshall","tag-ravens","tag-russell-square","tag-shamans","tag-start-of-summer","tag-wiccans","tag-witches"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18979,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18977\/revisions\/18979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}