The last few weeks here in Edinburgh have been very easy and somewhat relaxing too. I've been waking late and going to bed even later. The days have been filled with walks up the crags and around Holyrood park, down the main shopping street and to the local Tesco grocery store. The rest of my time has been filled by surfing the net, updating my iTunes library, chatting with Leire, daydreaming about Costa Rica and watching moofkies. Yep it’s been pretty slack!
Tonight I decided to treat myself and went to the movies with Viola my Polish friend. We saw the new X-Men flick about wolverine, not too bad but I only gave it 3 stars. It’s a typical action flick with scenes that are over the top and a bit too showy.
Last Friday was the Beltane Fire Festival where Pagans celebrate the coming of summer by lighting fires. In fact I don’t actually know what the festival was all about and even being there didn’t make things much clearer either.
The festival was on Calton Hill which is right in the heart of Edinburgh and conveniently just a short walk from my hostel (check out my pics). We were a group of about ten leaving the hostel and on our way there we saw quite a few people in costume. The first group we encountered were dressed like green goblins. Pointy noses, striped stockings and strange clothing with strings and bits flailing about as they ran up the street making loud noises and basically being silly. Further along a group all dressed in black hooded coats with their bodies painted red, silently trudged up the hill, ooh spooky.
Silence seemed to be a theme of the festival because apart from the crazy green goblins everyone else was eerily silent. Spread about on top of the hill were about three or four different pagan groups that represented different things. I didn’t buy an event schedule so was a bit clueless to what they were meant to represent, but from their actions it probably wouldn’t matter if I knew what they represented or not because they weren’t really doing anything. Each group was painted a different colour however and so maybe represented the elements?
Each group was at the center of a ring made by thin bamboo. They looked like caged-in sheep but the bamboo fence was only waist high so was a little pointless. The blue group I watched were as silent as the rest of the groups and were just mingling around not really doing anything. When they were doing something it seemed a little rehearsed but the meaning of their actions was far from obvious. It really made no sense and where was the fire!?
We got to the festival around 7pm and it wasn’t until 1030 that the fire started. Under the pillars of the pointless Romanesque structure a group started beating drums. 5 minutes later a fire at the center was lit which then spread and lit three shapes behind the pillars, which you couldn’t see unless you were standing in the right spot, which I wasn’t. Nothing seemed to be happening at all except for drums beating and the fire burning. There was a huge mass of people between me and the pillars so I went around the back. There was hardly anyone around the back where the three shapes were burning away filling the air with the stench of kerosene. What were the shapes of?
I caught up with the group and we sat around a bamboo fence that had a stage in the center. No one knew what was happening but nothing had happened on the stage all night so we figured something would happen soon. We ended up sitting there for over an hour before some of the green goblins came onto the stage and started messing around. Then there was nothing again. People were getting agitated and a few from the crowd stripped down to their undies and ran out into the ring and onto the stage jumping around just as crazily as the green goblins. A few minutes more passed and the drummers arrived with a group of blue dancers, some of whom were naked apart from red undies and their blue body paint.
The dancers and drummers danced and drummed for a good 10 minutes before the crowd started getting agitated again, some shouted out funny comments others rude comments, I shouted out ‘Where’s the fire!’. A few more minutes passed and finally the fire came but it was so uneventful that I decided to leave. The festival continued for another hour or so but apparently I missed very little, not surprised!
The festival was confusing at best, I really had no idea what was going on! The different groups all dressed in different colours were very interesting but what was it all about!? It was a good way to kill a few hours I guess but it meant I got to bed late, and I had an early start for a tour in the morning.
I went on the 3 day Isle of Skye tour over the weekend and it is easily the highlight of my time spent here in Edinburgh. Ive written about that in a separate entry so won’t go on about it just now. All I will say is that it was amazing! Now that I'm back I have just over a week before heading to Costa Rica. I have 6 days left at this hostel before catching the train back to London. I've got everything booked and organised between now and arriving back in London after Costa Rica. All I need to do now is figure out what to do after that.
