Rituals
In Celtic religion, their rituals can be divided into five main types:
1.Rituals performed at seasonal feasts ~ These accompanied the feasts of the Irish and were celebrated throughout the year. These feasts include: Samhain (1st of November), Imbolc (1st of February), Beltane (1st of May) and Lughnasadh (1st of August).
Samhain marks the beginning of a new Celtic year celebrated from sunset on October 31 to sunrise on November 1st. It is the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Samhain is Gaelic for “summers end” and it is the most important of all Celtic feasts. At this time Celts honor the opposing balance of forces of existence: darkness and light, night and day, death and life. Darkness and light are very significant for the Celts. Their year is split in two: Light at Beltane on May 1st and dark at Samhain on November 1st. The Celts observed time as proceeding from darkness to light because they understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings.
Also at this holy time the Celts believed that the boundaries between our world and the Otherworld are broken meaning the dead could return to the place they once lived. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. The festival of Samhain is also related strongly to Halloween. At the same time that the dead could enter this world, the spirits or fairies could also more easily enter this world at this time. So part of the festival involved going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise) often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, or disguising oneself from the sprits and fairies. This is what we nowadays refer to as Halloween but of course it’s tradition has slightly changed and is different in every country around the world.
This is a chant for Samhain.
A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the earth.
Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make.
Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake.
Imbolc rituals are celebrated on the 1st of February and is also called (Saint) Brighid’s Day. This festival marks the beginning of spring halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Christians observe this day as the feast day of Saint Brighids. Originally Imbolc was a pagan festival associated with the goddess Brighid but it was then Christianised as a festival of Saint Brighid. On Imbolc, Brighid’s crosses were made and paraded from house-to-house. As Brighid was said to have visited homes on Imbolc to get her blessings, people would make a bed for her and leave food and drink, while items of clothing would be left outside for her to bless while she would also protect homes and livestock.
There is not much known about Imbolc so many of its customs died out in the 20th century, but it is still observed and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the 20th century, Celtic neopagans have observed Imbolc, or something based on it, as a religious holiday.
Beltane is celebrated on the 1st of May and is known as the Gaelic May Day. It is held halfway between the spring equinox and he summer solstice. This feast is strongly related to fire hence it’s translation ‘Fire of Bel’. One of the rituals that is known to take place at this feast is that of the animals especially the cow, being driven between two fires. This was a purification ritual, and rituals associated with fire which exist in some parts of Europe may be reminiscent of Celtic rituals. Because this feast was to mark the beginning of summer it was also when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. The rituals that were performed were to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. With the bonfires that were lit, their flames, ashes and smoke were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. Doors, windows, and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In some parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush; a thorn bush decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright shells. Many of these customs were also part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.
Lughnasadh is celebrated on the 1st of August marking the beginning of the harvest season approximately halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. It corresponds to other European harvest festivals such as the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas. The festival is named after the god Lugh. It involves great gatherings that includes religious ceremonies, ritual athletic contest like the Tailteann Games, feasting, matchmaking and trading. Evidence has show that religious rites included the offering of the 1st, a feast of the new food, the sacrifice of a bull and a ritual dance-play. The majority of all these would’ve taken place on top of the mountains. Lughnasadh customs persisted until the 20th century, with the event being named various different things such as ‘Mountain Sunday’ as the event is now placed on the nearest Sunday to the original date. The custom of climbing hills and mountains at Lughnasadh has survived in some areas, although it has been re-cast as a Christian pilgrimage.
2.Transmigration rituals ~ These include initiation rites such as name giving, inauguration rites to kinship and death rites. There was a story about a mother tricked her son into giving him a name and after three other initiations he is finally considered a man. The initiation to kingship rituals vary from each place and time. For example the most common ritual you could associate this type of ritual with is the king being carried by his followers standing on his shield. Death rituals included a big feast in the graveyard area including a piece of meat and a container with drink - most often a beer or wine, especially for the richer dead.
3. Divinatory rituals ~ Most of these types of rituals are no longer reconstructable, all we know is that the druids were able to predict the future from bird flight and an examination of their intestines.
4. Curative processes ~ Are those of healing and restoration. These rituals are associated with a belief in the restoration powers of water or rebirth. Rituals such as immersion in sacred water and the offering of equivalent models of injured parts were used in the curative rituals. There is a legend of a curative incarnation used by ancient Celts to heal the severed Arm of Nuada, the King of the Tuatha Da Danann: “joint to joint of it, and sinew to sinew”.
5. Magical rituals ~ Include the collection of curative plants and is depicted through stories of the Druids. Blessings and curses were invoked by calling a god to do something to somebody else and evidence of these were found on such things as lead plates. The magical rituals also include sacrifice. Human sacrifice such as that of the Lindow man from Lindow moss in England, was ritualistically killed. He died of a ‘threefold’ death which included a hit on the head, strangulation and drowning. Other stories like these support the idea that the ancient Celtic people practiced a ritualistic killing where humans were sacrificed. There was also spells that were associated with women and Druid priests who claimed to have great power over the natural elements. There were stories that involved invisibility, Druids that had the power to move mountains and make rocks into armed men.
The Celts find meaning through their rituals as it helps to structure their lives and calendar. Their rituals and celebrations have explained forces over which the ancient Celtic people had no control over. Their understanding of the natural phenomena indicates an attempt to transcend their world and become associated with the forces that are believed to have control over their material world. When it comes to rituals the Celts certainly believe in mythological and transcendent forces.
1.Rituals performed at seasonal feasts ~ These accompanied the feasts of the Irish and were celebrated throughout the year. These feasts include: Samhain (1st of November), Imbolc (1st of February), Beltane (1st of May) and Lughnasadh (1st of August).
Samhain marks the beginning of a new Celtic year celebrated from sunset on October 31 to sunrise on November 1st. It is the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Samhain is Gaelic for “summers end” and it is the most important of all Celtic feasts. At this time Celts honor the opposing balance of forces of existence: darkness and light, night and day, death and life. Darkness and light are very significant for the Celts. Their year is split in two: Light at Beltane on May 1st and dark at Samhain on November 1st. The Celts observed time as proceeding from darkness to light because they understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings.
Also at this holy time the Celts believed that the boundaries between our world and the Otherworld are broken meaning the dead could return to the place they once lived. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. The festival of Samhain is also related strongly to Halloween. At the same time that the dead could enter this world, the spirits or fairies could also more easily enter this world at this time. So part of the festival involved going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise) often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, or disguising oneself from the sprits and fairies. This is what we nowadays refer to as Halloween but of course it’s tradition has slightly changed and is different in every country around the world.
This is a chant for Samhain.
A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the earth.
Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make.
Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake.
Imbolc rituals are celebrated on the 1st of February and is also called (Saint) Brighid’s Day. This festival marks the beginning of spring halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Christians observe this day as the feast day of Saint Brighids. Originally Imbolc was a pagan festival associated with the goddess Brighid but it was then Christianised as a festival of Saint Brighid. On Imbolc, Brighid’s crosses were made and paraded from house-to-house. As Brighid was said to have visited homes on Imbolc to get her blessings, people would make a bed for her and leave food and drink, while items of clothing would be left outside for her to bless while she would also protect homes and livestock.
There is not much known about Imbolc so many of its customs died out in the 20th century, but it is still observed and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the 20th century, Celtic neopagans have observed Imbolc, or something based on it, as a religious holiday.
Beltane is celebrated on the 1st of May and is known as the Gaelic May Day. It is held halfway between the spring equinox and he summer solstice. This feast is strongly related to fire hence it’s translation ‘Fire of Bel’. One of the rituals that is known to take place at this feast is that of the animals especially the cow, being driven between two fires. This was a purification ritual, and rituals associated with fire which exist in some parts of Europe may be reminiscent of Celtic rituals. Because this feast was to mark the beginning of summer it was also when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. The rituals that were performed were to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. With the bonfires that were lit, their flames, ashes and smoke were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. Doors, windows, and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In some parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush; a thorn bush decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright shells. Many of these customs were also part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.
Lughnasadh is celebrated on the 1st of August marking the beginning of the harvest season approximately halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. It corresponds to other European harvest festivals such as the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas. The festival is named after the god Lugh. It involves great gatherings that includes religious ceremonies, ritual athletic contest like the Tailteann Games, feasting, matchmaking and trading. Evidence has show that religious rites included the offering of the 1st, a feast of the new food, the sacrifice of a bull and a ritual dance-play. The majority of all these would’ve taken place on top of the mountains. Lughnasadh customs persisted until the 20th century, with the event being named various different things such as ‘Mountain Sunday’ as the event is now placed on the nearest Sunday to the original date. The custom of climbing hills and mountains at Lughnasadh has survived in some areas, although it has been re-cast as a Christian pilgrimage.
2.Transmigration rituals ~ These include initiation rites such as name giving, inauguration rites to kinship and death rites. There was a story about a mother tricked her son into giving him a name and after three other initiations he is finally considered a man. The initiation to kingship rituals vary from each place and time. For example the most common ritual you could associate this type of ritual with is the king being carried by his followers standing on his shield. Death rituals included a big feast in the graveyard area including a piece of meat and a container with drink - most often a beer or wine, especially for the richer dead.
3. Divinatory rituals ~ Most of these types of rituals are no longer reconstructable, all we know is that the druids were able to predict the future from bird flight and an examination of their intestines.
4. Curative processes ~ Are those of healing and restoration. These rituals are associated with a belief in the restoration powers of water or rebirth. Rituals such as immersion in sacred water and the offering of equivalent models of injured parts were used in the curative rituals. There is a legend of a curative incarnation used by ancient Celts to heal the severed Arm of Nuada, the King of the Tuatha Da Danann: “joint to joint of it, and sinew to sinew”.
5. Magical rituals ~ Include the collection of curative plants and is depicted through stories of the Druids. Blessings and curses were invoked by calling a god to do something to somebody else and evidence of these were found on such things as lead plates. The magical rituals also include sacrifice. Human sacrifice such as that of the Lindow man from Lindow moss in England, was ritualistically killed. He died of a ‘threefold’ death which included a hit on the head, strangulation and drowning. Other stories like these support the idea that the ancient Celtic people practiced a ritualistic killing where humans were sacrificed. There was also spells that were associated with women and Druid priests who claimed to have great power over the natural elements. There were stories that involved invisibility, Druids that had the power to move mountains and make rocks into armed men.
The Celts find meaning through their rituals as it helps to structure their lives and calendar. Their rituals and celebrations have explained forces over which the ancient Celtic people had no control over. Their understanding of the natural phenomena indicates an attempt to transcend their world and become associated with the forces that are believed to have control over their material world. When it comes to rituals the Celts certainly believe in mythological and transcendent forces.