BBC. CO. UK: The Celtic Wheel of the Year Have you ever wondered why we feel full of energy in the summer but slow down and want to stay-in in the winter? And why does Nature burst with life in the spring yet start to 'go to sleep' in the autumn? It's because we are all responding to the changing energies of the different seasons and our Celtic ancestors were exquisitely aware of this. They followed this seasonal flow of energy around a 'Wheel of the Year', honouring the changes with celebrations that kept them in touch with heaven and earth. There are eight key points in the year - four Quarter days that mark changes in the sky, and four Cross-quarter days that celebrate changes in the land. The Wheel of the Year The Wheel of the Year Apogee I find it helps to think of the year as a clock face with mid-winter, the first
Quarter day, at 12 'o clock. This is the Winter Solstice (Dec 20th-23rd), which is also known as the shortest day and is the darkest point of the year. The Solstices are when the sun seems to 'stand still' in the sky. Opposite this at 6 'o' clock is the Summer Solstice (June 20th- 23rd) - the longest day of the year and the point of highest energy. At 3 'o clock is the Spring Equinox (March 20th-23rd) and, at 9 'o clock, the Autumn Equinox (Sept 20th-23rd). An equinox is when night and day are of equal length. These are like the edges of winter and often take a hard toll on our bodies. In between these 'sky points' are the Cross-quarter days which mark 'gear shifts' in the energy of the earth. These times are also important agriculturally. Imbolc (Beginning of February) is when the first lambs are born and ewe's milk is available again after the long winter. The year is beginning to stir and wakeup. Beltane (Beginning of May) is the transition from spring to summer when Nature is pumping with life-force and fertility. Lammas (Beginning of August) is the time of ripeness and when the earth starts to give up her harvest. Samhain (Beginning of November) is the end/beginning of the Celtic year. It is
a time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and it is possible to commune with the ancestors. There is great joy in being aware of the seasons in this way and celebrating them in simple ways. As the year unfolds, we will look in detail at the eight energy-points of the year and the ways in which they affect us. We will also look at how these festivals have been celebrated in both past and present. So what is a 'solstice'? Solstice literally means 'Standing-Still-Sun' and happens twice a year, once in the winter and once in the summer. The winter solstice, (around 21st December) is the time of year when we, in the northern hemisphere, have our shortest day. This occurs because the earth has a tilt and our half of the world is leaning furthest away from the sun. Celebrations This important point in the sun's cycle has been celebrated all over the world for thousands of years. For the Norse it was Yule, for the Romans, Saturnalia, and it has now been Christianised into Christmas. But all of these celebrations have the same theme in common - the rebirth of the sun (or 'the son' in Christian terms). It is the time when the dark half of the year turns into the light half, at this time of the year the energies of the earth start to expand and open out again. Our ancestors were very keen to honour this time of the year and designed some of their stone circles/barrows to exactly pinpoint this turning point in the sun's journey.
Stonehenge is a perfect marker of both solstices and the amazing New Grange barrow in Ireland is designed to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on the winter solstice. Traditions One way in which this time is acknowledged in Wiltshire, UK, is by the lighting up of the white horse at Alton Barnes. Following an old tradition, people gather with tea lights in jars that are placed on the chalk so that the horse glows with candlelight. So how can you celebrate the 'return of the sun' in your home? lights, candles and anything else that sparkles! One way is to have lots of light - fairy The theme of this time is also about people gathering together to share food and merriment as we welcome back the sun and the brighter time of the year. Imbolc This is the time of year when we say goodbye to winter and welcome the coming spring. The bulbs force their way through, the birds get ready for this year's babies and the human beings
come out of 'hibernation'! The Celtic word Imbolc is thought to mean 'in the belly' in Gaelic. The land is like a foetus, getting ready to be re-born at the spring equinox in March. This time is also known as Oi-melg, which means 'ewes-milk' as it's the time when lambs are born and the milk starts to flow again. Can you imagine how important that was to our ancestors who had been surviving on the dwindling provisions of the previous harvest? This holiday is dedicated to the Celtic goddess Brigit. She comes in her maiden form at this time of year and brings purification, light and renewal. You can see her above the SW door of the tower on Glastonbury Tor, milking a cow. There is also the tradition of the villagers of Avebury climbing Silbury Hill to eat fig cakes, sugar and water to honour this festival. Imbolc is a good time to re-arrange your home, finances and relationships in order to make way for the new. Let go of what no longer serves you in your life and start to focus on what 'seeds' within you may now want to grow. Maybe even write down a little plan for what you want to happen over the next year. As with the other pagan festivals, Imbolc too has been Christianised. In the Catholic Church, this time is the feast of Candlemas, when the candles are blessed and the churches are filled with tiers of candles to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary after giving birth to Jesus. In the USA, this time of year is known as Groundhog Day as it is when the little groundhogs, or woodchucks, start popping out of their holes! The Spring Equinox (March 20th/21st) This is the second of the four 'sky points' in our Wheel of the Year and it is when the sun does a perfect balancing act in the heavens.
At the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox the sun rises exactly in the east, travels through the sky for 12 hours and then sets exactly in the west. So all over the world, at this special moment, day and night are of equal length hence the word equinox which means 'equal night'. Of course, for those of us here in the northern hemisphere it is this equinox that brings us out of our winter. For those in the southern hemisphere, this time is the autumnal equinox that is taking you in to your winter. And this is very much how people think of the equinoxes - as the 'edges' of winter. This is why they can be quite hard on our bodies as it is a major climatic shift, so it is a good time to give a boost to your immune system with natural remedies and cleansing foods. In Wiltshire (as with the rest of rural Britain), it was traditional to drink dandelion and burdock cordials at this time as these herbs help to cleanse the blood and are a good tonic for the body after its winter hardships. As the Vernal Equinox heralds the arrival of spring, it is a time of renewal in both nature and the home, so time for some spring-cleaning! This is more than just a physical activity, it also helps to remove any old or negative energies accumulated over the dark, heavy winter months preparing the way for the positive growing energy of spring and summer. As with all the other key festivals of the year, there are both Pagan and Christian associations with the Spring Equinox. This is the time of the ancient Saxon goddess, Eostre, who stands for new beginnings and fertility. This is why she is symbolized by eggs (new life) and rabbits/hares (fertility). Her name is also the root of the term we give to the female hormone, oestrogen. By now, you may be beginning to see the Christian celebration derived from this festival - Easter. And this is the reason why the 'Easter Bunny' brings us coloured eggs (and if you're lucky chocolate ones!) at this time of year.
So, as nature starts to sprout the seeds that have been gestating in her belly throughout the winter, maybe you can start to think about what you want to 'sprout' in your life now and start to take action. Beltane (the beginning of May) Beautiful Beltane - this is a time of year when flowers and blossoms are in full colour and the energies of the land surge with life-force as we tip over from Spring in to Summer. Driving around the countryside at this time of the year one has to be very careful as one is totally intoxicated by the beauty of the land! Also known as May Day, Beltane is the second of the 'Earth' festivals on our Wheel of the Year and is the holiday that celebrates the sacred union of the Goddess and the God. Myths say that at this time, the young God (sun/son) who was re-born at the Winter Solstice has blossomed into manhood and he and the Goddess become lovers. Through their union and fertility, all life begins again on the earth. is their blissful union. The ancients believed that the Wheel of the Year would not keep turning without their help so, like the other festivals, Beltane has long been celebrated with feasts and rituals. One of these is dancing around the Maypole and it would have been traditional to see this on many village greens. The May pole symbolises the God, the soft colourful ribbons that entwine around the pole represent the feminine and the dance During these celebrations our ancestors would also act out the human version of this union by spending a night making love in the fields to ensure the fertility of the land. Children conceived at this time were considered especially blessed and were known as Merry-be-Gots.
Fire to invoke the sun god summer solstice. On Beltane eve they would also build two large fires known as Bel fires to invoke the sun god, Bel, and his blessings and protection. The tribe's herds were driven between these fires to purify them and ensure their fertility before taking them to the summer grazing lands. Young couples might also jump over the Bel fires to declare their intention to handfast (marry) at the What the early church made of all this one can only imagine but, yes, they too wanted to make their mark on this time of year. The Christian ceremony at the beginning of May is known as Roodmas (Mass of the Cross), rood being a Middle English word for cross. It seems strange that the Church should want to associate this life-giving time of the year with an instrument of crucifixion but the deeper meaning of this mass is about Christ's resurrection and that would tie in with the energies of Beltane. Crop circles In Wiltshire, on May 3rd in 1998, a crop circle formation appeared in oilseed rape next to Silbury Hill and was called The Beltane Wheel. This is an ancient symbol used at Celtic festivals in May and is made up of 33 tongues of flame, maybe like the fires of Bel. As you can see, beautiful Beltane is a time that welcomes the return of vitality, passion and fertility. But this is not just about the physical - it includes the fertility of the imagination and how you express your creativity in life. How might you want to be creative today? Maypoles Maypoles were once a common sight in British villages - now there are hardly any. They haven't always been popular - following an Act of Parliament in 1644, many were removed, since their association with pagan fertility rites was deemed by the Puritans as amoral and somewhat heathen. One of the largest poles was a feature in the village of Ansty,
in south Wiltshire. Over the generations, hundreds of children danced around the 70-foot pole on May Day but following the storms of 1993, the pole came crashing to the ground. Samhain The night of Samhain, in Irish, Oíche Shamhna and Scots Gaelic, Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal festivals of the Celtic calendar, and falls on the 31st of October. It represents the final harvest. In modern Ireland and Scotland, the name by which Halloween is known in the Gaelic language is still Oíche/Oidhche Shamhna. Samhain (pronounced 'sow'inn') is a very important date in the Pagan calendar for it marks the Feast of the Dead. It is still the custom in some areas to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast, and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night.[ Samhain has been celebrated in Britain for centuries and has its origin in Pagan Celtic traditions. It was the time of year when the veils between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be at their thinnest: when the spirits of the dead could most readily mingle with the living once again. Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows' Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead. Loved ones who have recently died are remembered and their spirits often invited to join the living in the celebratory feast. It is also a time at which those born during the past year are formally welcomed into the community Death also symbolises endings and Samhain is therefore not only a time for reflecting on mortality, but also on the passing of relationships, jobs and other significant changes in life. A time for taking stock of the past and coming to terms with it, in order to move on and look forward to the future. Ancient Celtic celebrations Not only did the Celts believe the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead dissolved on this night, they thought that the presence of the spirits helped their priests to make predictions about the future. To celebrate Samhain the Druids built huge sacred bonfires. People brought harvest food and sacrificed animals to share a communal dinner in celebration of the festival. During the celebration the Celts wore costumes - usually animal heads and skins. They would also try and tell each other's fortunes. After the festival they re-lit the fires in their homes from the sacred bonfire to help protect
them, as well as keep them warm during the winter months. Hallowe'en - All Hallows' Eve Pumpkin and squashes Samhain is a harvest festival and pumpkins are still associated with Hallowe'en Hallowe'en falls on 31 October each year. The origins of Hallowe'en date back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. This festival, which means the end of summer, celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the Celtic new year on November 1st. Roman Britain By 43 AD the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic regions. In the following 400 years two Roman festivals became incorporated with Samhain. The first was Feralia - a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead, and the second was a day to honour Pomona the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. An apple is the symbol of Pomona, so perhaps this is the origin of the tradition of bobbing for apples: whoever bit into an apple first would be married first the next year. By the 800s Christianity had spread into Celtic lands In the early 7th century Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, formerly a temple to all the gods, as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Mary and the Martyrs, and ordered that that date (May 13) should be celebrated every year. It became All Saints' Day, a day to honour all the saints, and later, at the behest of Pope Urban IV (d. 1264), a day specially to honour those saints who didn't have a festival day of their own. In the 8th century Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1 when he dedicated a chapel to all the saints in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Gregory IV made the festival universal throughout the Church.
November 1 coincided with the Pagan festival of Samhain. Encyclopaedia Britannica says this date may perhaps have been chosen 'in an effort to supplant the Pagan holiday with a Christian observance', and this would have been in line with the policy, suggested by Pope Gregory I of adopting Pagan buildings like the Pantheon and festivals like Samhain to serve a Christian purpose. Over the years these festivals combined. The mass held on All Saints' Day was called Allhallowmass - the mass of the Hallows. (In the Old English language hallow means to bless, consecrate or sanctify.) The night before was known as All Hallows' Eve - which eventually became known as Hallowe'en. All Saints' Day is said to be the day when souls walked the Earth. In early Christian tradition souls were released from purgatory on All Hallow's Eve for 48 hours. There was a clear parallel to the Pagan belief that the spirits of the dead could affect the land of the living on this night. It was celebrated much like Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the Eve of All Saints, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day were called Hallowmass. That feast gives the assurance that there is a state of being that stretches beyond our life here on this earth - an affirmation of the essential spiritual nature of human life. People are made for more than can be experienced over our lifetime spent in this world. Trick-or-Treat? Walking Dead trace the origins of present day "trick-or-treat" to Samhain, which was the supreme night of demonic jubilation. Spirits of the dead would rise out of their graves and wander the countryside, trying to return to the homes where they formerly lived. Frightened villagers tried to appease these wandering spirits by offering them gifts of fruit and nuts. They began the tradition of placing plates of the finest food and bits of treats that the household had to offer on their doorsteps, as gifts, to appease the hunger of the ghostly wanderers. If not placated, villagers feared that the spirits would kill their flocks or destroy their property. The problem was... if the souls of dead loved ones could return that night, so could anything else,human or not, nice or not-so-nice. The only thing the superstitious people knew to do to protect themselves on such an occasion
was to masquerade as one of the demonic hoard, and hopefully blend in unnoticed among them. Wearing masks and other disguises and blackening the face with soot were originally ways of hiding oneself from the spirits of the dead who might be roaming around. This is the origin of Halloween masquerading as devils, imps, ogres, and other demonic creatures. Others trace "trick-or-treat" to a European custom called "souling". Beggars would go from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers could guarantee a soul's passage to heaven. In many parts of Britain and Ireland this night used to be known as 'Mischief Night', which meant that people were free to go around the village playing pranks and getting up to any kind of mischief without fear of being punished. Many of the different customs were taken to the United States by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the nineteenth century, and they developed into 'trick or treat'. Halloween Comes to America Traditional Halloween symbols (witches, black cats, pumpkins, candles, masks, parties and pranks) appeared in the U.S. during the late 1800's. In 1848, millions of Irish emigrants poured into America as a result of the potato famine. With this sudden influx of people, the holiday of Druidism found its new home on alien shores. "Proudly Celtic, they called Halloween Oidche Shamhna (`Night of Samhain'), as their ancestors had, and kept the traditional observances" The Jack-o-lantern is the festival light for Halloween and is the ancient symbol of a damned soul. Originally the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns as
representations of the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead. When the Irish emigrated to America they could not find many turnips to carve into Jack O'Lanterns but they did find an abundance of pumpkins. Pumpkins seemed to be a suitable substitute for the turnips and pumpkins have been an essential part of Halloween celebrations ever since. Jack-o-lantern Pumpkins were cut with faces representing demons and was originally intended to frighten away evil spirits. It was said that if a demon or such were to encounter something as fiendish looking as themselves they'd run away in terror, thus sparing the houses dwellers from the ravages of dark entities. They would have been carried around the village boundaries or left outside the home to burn through the night. Read the Text and answer the following questions: 1. What was the purpose of the Wheel of the Year for the Celts? 2. Explain what Solstices and Equinoxes are 3. What is the link between Quarter and Cross Quarter Days? 4. How has the Winter Solstice been celebrated so far? 5. What does Imbolc celebrate and why? 6. How do the Welsh traditionally celebrate the Spring equinox? What are its links with the Christian tradition? 7. What is the symbolic meaning of the Maypole? 8. What is the Christian equivalent of Beltane? 9. What does Samhain symbolically celebrate, apart from the Dead? 10. How did the Druids celebrate Samhain? 11. Why is the pumpkin associated with Halloween? 12. How was Samhain christianised? 13. Explain the origin of the Halloween tradition of dressing up as demonic creatures 14. Also explain the Trick or treat tradition 15. What are the origins and the meaning of the Jack-o-Lantern symbol?