For Jim it would be an everyday jape, when he’d ignite some part of Wee Jon, so I dare say he’ll be having a Beltane time with some other victim on May Day.
Each of my old Aberdeen University buddies has gone their separate ways.
Poacher-turned-gamekeeper Jim joined the fire service and Wee Jon the civil service.
These days he teases me with tales of his travels as he enjoys a much-deserved retirement.
Hippies on the hill
They’re still lighting fires for Jim to monitor up in the north-east of Scotland.
With scenic Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, a riot of annual colour with revellers twirling fireballs in the streets.
The scene is played out across Scotland and other Celtic nations today for the pagan Beltane Festival.
Now had you been in Scotland’s capital Edinburgh last night on the last day of April then you’d have seen hippies on the hill.
Athens of the North
Calton Hill off the bottom of Princes Street in the shadow of Scotland’s Folly aka The National Monument of Scotland.
It was originally modelled on Athens’ Parthenon as a tribute to those Scots who died in the Napoleonic Wars.
The burghers of Edinburgh, known at the time and since as The Athens of the North, set about its Parthenon edifice in 1826.
But funds ran out it in 1829 and it has been left unfinished to this day giving city wits the licence to christen it Scotland’s Folly.
The revellers proceeded anti-clockwise around the path meeting various groups along the way.
All the time driven by the beat of drums which urge it on towards summer.
Of course with such a ritualised celebration there are all manner of conventions.
With the one we enjoy the most involving the foods and drinks to warm us on a Northern European open-air evening.
A fiery race
Now wherever you have been enjoying your fire festival we trust it’s warmed your heart.
As it has ours as captured in these photographs by Gordon Veitch for Beltane Fire Society.
And you’re having a Beltane Day on the first of this month.
Yes, May Day is noted as a flower festival and when workers rise up and loosen their chains.
And each have their merits and Scots have been known to indulge in both, though English Morris Dancers is a step too far.
But we are at heart a fiery race although you don’t have to worry if you see hippies on a hill in Edinburgh city centre.
Just join in.