Dreams for Beltane: celebrating the First of May

Milton Keynes Literary Festival is launching a competition for anyone living, working or studying in Bucks, Beds or Northants aged 14 or older, to submit a story (fictional or factual) or a poem based around themes associated with the first of May.

The First of May was celebrated by ancient Romans as Floralia, in Graeco-Syrian culture as Maiouma and in Celtic and Pagan traditions have long celebrated Beltane, which traditionally marks the start of summer. It celebrates International Workers’ Day which commemorates a general strike that had begun on 1 May 1886. The date has also marked many significant historic events: the abolition of the slave trade in Europe, the Act of Union of England and Scotland, the 1997 Labour victory in the UK general election and much more.

There are no rules: poems may be written in any genre and any of this date’s associations – pagan ritual, the arrival of summer blossom, feasting, the turn of the seasons, workers rights campaigns or marches, histories of social struggle, the hope for universal peace – are equally valid to explore.

Judged by MK Lit Fest Steering Group.