One of the most beautiful customs associated with Beltane was that of "bringing in the May." The young people of the villages and towns would go out into the fields and forests at Midnight on April 30th to gather flowers. They used the flowers to decorate themselves and then would parade back into the villages, stopping at each home to leave flowers, and to receive the best of food and drink that the home had to offer. Revelers would bless the fields and flocks of those who were generous and wish bad harvests on those who were not. (This custom was very significant to the ancients and is quite similar to the original "trick or treating" at Samhain.)

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood traditions of Beltane is the custom of free sexuality on this night. For a long time after the Christian form of marriage (and it's strict rules of sexual monogomy) had replaced the older customs of handfasting, those strict rules of monogomy were relaxed for the May Eave rites. Called 'greenwood marriages', in which young men and women who spent the night in the forest and brought back boughs of flowers and garlands to decorate the village in the morning, were especially condemned by the Puritans. Many a young woman would come back pregnant from these romps in the woods, and such children were referred to as 'merry be-got'.