Celtic Holidays and Celebrations
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The ancient Celtic people lived long ago and lived very close to Nature and the Cycles of Mother Earth. They found that the Wheel of the Year, or the passing of one month or moon to the next, taught them a lot about their own lives. In our modern times, many people are remembering again how important our Mother Earth is and are celebrating her in different ways. Some people try to recapture what the Celts believed and how they saw the Divine. This is now called Earth-Based Spirituality, and people practice it in many ways. For some, it is a new/old religion of one kind or another. Many others just try to pay better attention to the lessons our Mother Earth can teach us, and honor and celebrate our Earth, in addition to their other spiritual beliefs.
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The Celts then and Earth-lovers now celebrate various holidays that follow the great, ever-turning Wheel of the Year. Just as you see in An Earth Child's Book of the Year, the Earth Children celebrate every month or every moon. The Celtic calender actually has 13 months, instead of 12. But to make it easy to understand, think of the year as a big circle, divided in half, then into quarters and then into eighths. Remember, it is always spinning, always turning, as the months and seasons pass. Because this is an endless circle, the very end of the year is also the very beginning of the next one.
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Celebrate the Winter Solstice right around December 21, which is the day of the least light and the most dark. Celebrate with lights and candles, gifts and reminders of hope, because on this longest night of the year, the sun is reborn. What that means is that from that day on, the sun will shine a little longer each day and the darkness will be a little shorter each night all the way up to the Summer Solstice, which is when the sun shines the longest and the night is at its shortest.
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The next holiday is Imbolc, (pronounced IM-bulk) as the Celts and modern Earth-lovers call it. Mostly in the United States, it is called Ground Hog Day. Some Christian churches call it St. Brigid's Day. For the Celts, this day honored the goddess Brigit, who, like the Earth, was just waking up as a young maiden, coming to life, along with the slightly thawing earth. Remember how in An Earth Child's Book of the Year, the little seed starts to come to life in February? And in An Earth Child's Book of Verse, there is a whole poem called "Quickening." Quickening means awaking, coming to life. See the Celtic Myths page to learn more about Brigit, who was a very important goddess to the Celts.
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After Imbolc we move towards spring until we are half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice. It is the Spring Equinox, March 21, when daylight equals nighttime and the days from thereon become longer. This is when spring really begins, and the lovely holiday to celebrate is called Ostara. At this time of year, baby animals are born, plants are starting to grow, the first flowers begin to bloom. Life is returning to the Earth. Celebrate with bunnies and eggs, symbols of birth and new life.
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Beltaine is the Celtic name for the month of May and is celebrated with bonfires and the tradition of hanging Hawthorn tree branches over doors and windows for good luck. Another tradition is the Maypole. On May 1st, also known as May Day, a tall pole is erected attached with long ribbons of different colors all the same length. Each person holds a ribbon and dances in a circle around the pole, half going in one direction and half in the other direction, weaving the ribbons around the pole. In An Earth Child's Book of Verse, there is a delightful poem titled "The Hawthorn Maypole Dance."
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The Summer Solstice, also known as Midsummer, is the day when the sun reaches its highest position in the sky, around June 21. Opposite to the Winter Solstice, it is the longest day of the year and marks the beginning of the days growing shorter and shorter. Summer Solstice is celebrated with feasts, fairs, concerts and bonfires.
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The festival of Lughnasa is a tradition commemorating the funeral of Tailtiu, the foster mother of the Celtic god Lugh, the god of storms and lightening. In Celtic mythology, Lugh holds a funeral feast in Tailtiu's honor after she dies from exhaustion preparing the fields to grow crops. A feature of this festival are games of skill and strength. Participants compete in Caber Toss (tossing a tall pole from its end), Stone Put (like shot put, but using a large stone) and Hammer Throw (the hammer being a metal ball on the end of a 4 ft. wooden shaft) among other games.
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The Autumnal Equinox is the day when daylight and nighttime are of equal lengths, and the days continue to get shorter and shorter. This is the time of harvest, when grains are gathered, fruit and vegetables are picked and canned and meat is preserved to last throughout the winter months. Harvest Festivals are celebrated in many cultures throughout the world. Thanksgiving, with its great feast, is a traditional harvest festival much like those celebrated by the Celts. Gratitude for the abundance provided by the Earth and an appreciation for all ones blessings is an important feature of any harvest festival.
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Samain, which occurs on October 31-November 1, is celebrated at the end of harvest and the beginning of the dark half of the year. Also called the "festival of the dead", the ancient Celts believed it was a time when the spirits of the dead could pass through the boundary between the living and the dead. It is a time to honor ancestors and hear stories about them. Samain traditions include bonfires and the wearing of costumes and masks to ward off evil spirits. Large turnips would be hollowed out, carved with faces and a candle placed inside to create lanterns. Samain is the origin of All Hallows Eve...Hallowe'en!
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