Medieval dresses, body paint, pagan rituals and fire dancing perfectly encapsulated the Beltane Fire Festival, this year.
The festival celebrates the beginning of the summer and fires are lit all across town. The fires are a representative of the growing power of the sun from spring to midsummer. The pagan origins of the festival give the celebrations a delicious dark twist, with pagan culture being seen in clothes and revelries.
Edinburgh very actively participatesΒ in the celebrations. Men, women and children are all seen decked out in elaborate garbs.Β One of the main highlights of the festival is the parade that takes place down Carlton Hill,Β during around midday. Being a spectator is enough to check out some of the coolest avatars.
Like this gentleman rocking the natural look-
(Image Credits: www.theguardian.com)
Green and leafy goes beyond being just a diet choice to transforming into a trendy fashion look.Β This year too, people incorporated green and leaves in their clothes quite creatively.
(Image Credits: www.theguardian.com)
But this wasn’t the only kind of fashion seen around this year. Revelers raised their costume game by several notches. Medieval dresses, elaborate body paint and pretty hair accessories were all the rage this year.
(Image Credits: www.instagram.com/secretoftarot)
But there is a reason the Beltane is known as the fire festival. Because every April 30, Carlton Hill lights up with some seriously insane fire shows. This fire play is part of an age old custom of reenacting the story of how the Queen May slayed the Green Man, thus ushering in the much needed summer.
(Image Credits: www.instagram.com/shoresandstars)
More than 300 volunteers put in about 30,000 hours to put up one of the greatest shows in the history of the festival.
(Image Credits: www.instagram.com/elizabethunseelie)