“What on earth is a Bealtaine festival?” Linda was helping me to put up our posters for the age-friendly event on the main noticeboard, passing me pins while I struggled to unroll the posters. They wanted to be cylindrical, not pinned flat.

“It’s one of the old Celtic festivals that Wiccans celebrate.”

“Wiccan? Is that like Chewbacca in Star Wars?”

I laughed, the step ladder wobbled, and my poster re-furled. “Drat. No, Chewbacca was a Wookie, not a Wiccan. Wiccan is what modern pagans call themselves. They’re into nature and they celebrate the old Celtic festivals - like Samhain and Bealtaine.”

“You mean Halloween.”

“No, that’s the Christian version. It was pagan first. The Halloween thing is Christianity t...

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