Scottish town sends clear message - Peebles Beltane Festival will "come back next year bigger and better than before."

Peebles (Scottish Gaelic: Na Pùballan) a lovely town nestled into the west corner of the Scottish Borders. It lies at the confluence of the River Tweed (Scottish Gaelic: Abhainn Thuaidh) and Eddleston Water.  The oldest building in Peebles is the tower of St Andrew's Church, which was founded in 1195. Another ancient church in the town is the Cross Kirk, founded in 1261. This church plays a prominent part in the town's annual Beltane Festival.

Beltane is the Gaelic May festival that is historically and continues to be widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, the others being Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh. The annual Beltane festival in Peebles involves a Common Riding, which is an equestrian tradition in this area of Scotland. Another festival highlight is the crowning of the Beltane Queen.

This year's Beltane festivals in many areas of the Celtic world have had to be scaled down or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This was also the case in Peebles. However, as reported in the local newspaper the Peeblesshire News, another local tradition that normally takes place before the festival has now taken place.This is the big clean-up, normally held before the Beltane each year.  Around 20 volunteers from the Callants organisation gathered on Sunday at 9am to remove weeds and litter across central areas of the town. 

The Callants Club had its first inaugural meeting in 1936. Its core and substance was based around the Peebles Beltane Festival. They continue this tradition of helping develop and nurture the festival today. In doing so they are proud of their contribution to making it one of the best summer festivals in the Borders. The meaning of the word 'callant' is described as being a 'young man or lad of the town'. In taking part in this year's  cleaning the message that has been clearly sent by the volunteers of Peebles Callant Club is one of optimism. That despite the cancellation of this year's festival Peebles Beltane Festival is getting ready to come back in 2021 even bigger and better than before.

Image:Peebles Beltane Festival photograph from their facebook page.