Last night I went to Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill in Edinburgh. Every year on April 30, thousands of people gather to celebrate the beginning of summer by covering their bodies in paint, lighting things on fire and banging on drums. That's a succinct, if somewhat irreverent, assessment of what went on last night. Actually, according to the Beltane Fire Society, which has been hosting the event for the past 20 years, it's an important cultural celebration which has roots in ancient Celtic tradition for hundreds of years. According to the website, it's attended by 12,000 people ever year, and by the look of things last year, it certainly felt like it. I had no idea what a popular event it was since I just had stumbled upon it by accident, but I'm definitely glad I was able to take part on it since it was for sure one of the coolest things I've seen here in Edinburgh. There's a lot more meaning behind it, which unfortunately I cannot begin to understand or explain...but read up on it here.
What I've been starting to understand lately is that it's been incredibly hard to try and describe what you see to people. Like, it's impossible to describe an event like this into words, because it's more about what you're feeling at that very moment, the smell of the fire, the atmosphere of standing with thousands of other people watching this go down. Even photos don't fully illustrate what this moment represents to you. This is how I feel about most experiences I've had in Scotland and through traveling. There's just no way to put some things into words.
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