It is believed that (1) ancient Irish had four major festivals, as (2) as a number of smaller festivals. When Christianity came to Ireland around 1500 years (3) , the priests and monks Christianised some of the Pagan festivals and because of that, some of the ancient Irish festivals (4) still celebrated in Ireland today.
Bealtaine signals the start of summer. Anyone who speaks Irish will (5) familiar with this word, (6) Bealtaine is also the Irish word for the month of May, along with the festival on the first day of that month. The word beal may have meant ‘bright light’ and the second part means ‘fire’. This festival is strongly connected (7) fire in Irish tradition. Until a hundred years ago, people in some country areas of Ireland still followed the custom (8) building two great fires in a field on this day and driving their cattle between the fires to protect them from disease. According to a text from the 10th century, the Druids used (9) do the same during the Pagan era hundreds of years before that. When an Irish speaker is confused or unsure (10) to do, they often use the phrase “I am between two Bealtaine fires about it”.