Main: From the Library - Music for Beltane Eve

Today is the last day of April and tomorrow is May Day, also known traditionally as Beltane. In the modern Neopagan calendar, Beltane is one of the cross-quarter days where the Sun is mid-way between Equinox and Solstice, and the opportunity for a Fire Festival. It's also a Sabbat for the Wiccan community, where it takes on some of the characteristics of a Germanic May Day festival with an emphasis on fertility and the inclusion of Maypole dancing.

We should also remember that May 1 is also traditionally a day of celebrating the working people of the world. The image shown here is an illustration by Walter Crane from 1895 which brings together both the traditional meaning of May Day and the importance of the celebration to working people - and today's programme is dedicated to workers around the world struggling for fair treatment at the hands of the powerful.

Today's programme presents some music to help get you in the mood for the big festival of tomorrow, with traditional dancing and pieces of music that evoke the time of year. It majors on the traditional dance, with some Celtic material and other music thrown in, and we leave it to others to delve deeper into the Neopagan and Wiccan aspects of the festival. In particular we draw your attention to gullar sahir Reverie at 6pm Pacific today, where Gabi will present a special programme for Beltane.

Don't forget to join us at 11am and 7pm Pacific Time (19:00 and 03:00 in the UK) for the latest instalments in our exciting radio adventures - Return to Inverness and The Illusionati in The ZBS Radio Hour.

Today's programme is presented by Elrik Merlin and produced by gullar sahir in conjunction with our friends at the Alexandrian Free Library Consortium of Second Life. You can listen to the programme in-world now at http://main.radioriel.org, or simply click here to start your player, if your browser is configured to do so. Listeners in the United States are encouraged to tune in using this link: http://loudcity.com/stations/radio-riel/tune_in

For more information on the Alexandrian Free Library, current exhibits and the work of Consortium members in general, please visit the Alexandrian Free Library website, or one of their branches in-world.