Celtic mythology
The Celtic mythology is known for a number of accounts of the religion of the Celts during the Iron Age. Like other Indo-European cultures during this period, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among the Celtic people there were some tribes in close contact with Rome, such as the Gauls and the Celtiberians. This mythology did not survive the Roman Empire, due to their subsequent conversion to Christianity and the loss of their original languages. Although ironically it was through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that details about their beliefs are known.
In contrast, the Celtic community that maintained their political or linguistic identities (such as the Scotti and Breton tribes of the British Isles) transmitted at least traces of Iron Age mythologies, which were recorded in often in written form during the Middle Ages.
Historical sources
Due to the paucity of surviving sources writing down the Gaulish language, it is conjectured that the pagan Celts were not widely literate. Although a written form of the Gallic language - using the Greek, Latin and North Italic alphabets - was worked, as evidenced, by votive items bearing Gallic inscriptions and the Coligny Calendar. Julius Caesar testifies to the literacy of the Gauls, but also describes how their priests, the Druids, forbade the use of writing to record certain verses of religious importance, also noting that the Helvetii had a written census.
Rome introduced the more widespread habit of public inscriptions, and weakened the power of the druids in the territories it conquered. In fact, most of the inscriptions on deities discovered in Gaul (modern France), Britain and other places that represent Celtic territories after the Roman conquest.
Although the early Scotti of Ireland and parts of modern Wales used the Ogam script to record short inscriptions (largely personal names), more sophisticated literacy was not introduced into Celtic territories. These had not been conquered by Rome until the advent of Christianity; in fact, many Gaelic myths were first recorded by Christian monks, although without reckoning with much of their original religious significance.
Julius Caesar's comments on Celtic religion and its meaning
The classic source on the Celtic gods of Gaul is the section "Commentarii de bello Gallico" Julius Caesar (52-51 BC; The Gallic Wars). In it, he names the five main gods worshiped in Gaul (according to the practice of his time, he names the gods with the nearest Roman equivalent) and describes their roles. Mercury was the most revered of all deities and numerous representations of him have been discovered. Mercury is seen as the creator of all arts (and is often taken to refer to Lugus for this reason), protector of adventurers and merchants, and the most powerful in relation to trade and profit. In addition, the Gauls revered Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. Celtic divinities are described with opinions roughly equal to those of other peoples: Apollo dispels disease, Minerva encourages abilities, Jupiter rules the heavens, and Mars influences war. In addition to these five, he mentions that the Gauls trace their lineage back to Dis Pater.
The problem with 'equivalents' roman gods of caesar
Because Caesar does not describe these gods by their Celtic names, but rather by the names of the Roman divinities (to which he compared them), this process considerably confuses the task of identifying these Gallic gods with their natal names in island mythologies. He also portrays by means of an orderly scheme the deity and its role in a way that is quite unknown and unfamiliar to the colloquial literature of that time. Still, despite the restrictions, his final list is a helpful and fundamentally accurate observation.
Balancing their description with oral tradition, or even with Gallic iconography, it is possible to collect the different environments and roles of these gods. Caesar's comments and the iconography allude to quite different periods in the history of Gallic religion. The iconography, in Roman times, is part of a setting of great social and political events, and the religion it represents may actually have been less obvious than that held by the druids (priestly order) during the period of Gallic autonomy. from Rome.
Some scholars conclude that Celtic deities and related cults were local and tribal and not pan-Celtic. Defenders of this opinion cite the reference to Lucan, a divinity called Teutates, which they translate as "tribal spirit" (teuta is believed, can be interpreted as "the tribe" in Proto-Celtic). The evident series of divine names, however, can be accounted for in a different way: many may be mere epithets applied to key gods worshiped in pan-Celtic cults.
The ramifications of Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is found in a varied, but related, number of distinct subgroups broadly related by ramifications of the Celtic language:
- Ancient Celtic Religion (known basically by archaeological sources rather than by written mythological sources.
- Mythology in the Goidolic language, mainly represented by Irish mythology
- Mythological Cycle
- Ulster Cycle
- Fernian Cycle
- Historical cycle
- Mythology in the britonic language, mainly represented by the Gallic mythology.
Celtic deities (gods)
The gods of the ancient Celts
Although the Celtic world at its height encompassed most of western and central Europe, it was not politically unified, nor was there any substantial central source of cultural influence, consequently there was much variation in the local practices of Celtic religion (although certain motifs, for example, the worship of the god Lugh, seem to have spread throughout the Celtic world). Inscriptions of more than three hundred deities, often compared to their Roman counterparts, have survived, but of these the most represented appear to be the genii locorum, local or tribal gods, of whom only a few few were widely worshipped. However, from what has come down to us from Celtic mythology, it is possible to distinguish concordances that hint at a more unified pantheon than is often believed.
The nature and functions of these ancient gods can be deduced from their names, the location of their inscriptions, their iconography, and the Roman deities to which they have been compared.
The Gods of Ireland
The oldest mythical corpus is found in the manuscripts corresponding to the High Middle Ages of Ireland, which were written by Christians, so the divine nature of their gods was modified.
The original myth seems to be a war between two seemingly divine races: the Tuatha Dé Danann, literally the "Tribes of the Goddess Dana" who constitute what is called the great gods of the Irish pantheon and the Fomoré, a mysterious people who constantly appear in Irish tradition made up of giants who live on the islands that surround Ireland and who continually threaten to invade it without actually realizing it. These wars between the two races represent the basis of the text Cath Maige Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tuireadh), as well as fragments of the great pseudo-historical construction Leabhar Ghabhála Érenn (Book of the Invasion of Ireland).
The Tuatha Dé Dannan represent the functions of human society such as royalty, arts and war, while the Fomoré represent wild nature and dark forces always ready to throw human and divine society into chaos.
Dagda
The supreme god of the Irish pantheon appears to have been the Dagda. He is God-druid and god of druids, lord of the elements and knowledge, jurist and fearsome warrior. During the second battle of Mag Tured , he led the Tuatha Dé Danann to victory over the Fomoré. He is called the Dagda because he is the "good god", not good in a moral sense, but good in everything. He has been called Eochid ("father of all"), Lathir ("mighty father") and Ruadh Rofhessa ("red of great science"). Dagda is a father-figure, a protector of the tribe, and the basic Celtic god of which other male deities were variants. Celtic gods were mostly non-specialized entities, or rather whose fields of domain spanned several areas. As it is a clan and this idea is widely disseminated among the community as a reflection of society, it seems that they acted as a human community dividing up the tasks. Although if Roman syncretism could occur with its gods, this is due to the fact that in practice their fields of action were clearly limited.
Because the Dagda's particular character is a figure of ridiculous mockery in Irish mythology, some authors conclude that he was trusted to be benevolent (or ineffectual) enough to tolerate a joke at his expense.
Irish tales portray the Dagda as a figure of power, easily distinguished by his extreme gluttony and overflowing sexuality. She carries a cauldron whose content is inexhaustible, prototype of the Grail, and a magical harp that can play, by itself, sounds of lamentation, sleep, death or laughter. She also has a mace; if she hits someone with one of her ends, she kills him; if she does it with the other, she resurrects him. He is, then, the god of life and death, absolutely ambiguous and possessing fearsome forces that can be good or bad. In Dorset there is a famous silhouette of an ithyphallic giant known as the Cerne Abbas Giant displaying a mace. Although this was made in Roman times, for quite some time it has been thought to represent the Dagda, however, this has been reconsidered in recent times, due to recent studies that show that it could have been a representation of what appears to be a wide cloth that it hangs from the horizontal arm of the figure, leading to the suspicion that it really represents Hercules, (Heracles), with the skin of the Nemean Lion over his arm and carrying the mace he used to kill. In Gaul, it is speculated that the Dagda is associated with Sucellos, god of agriculture, forests and alcoholic beverages, armed with a hammer and a cup.
In more recent epics, as well as in the Arthurian novels, the character of the Dagda often appears in the form of a "Woodsman," a mace-wielding lout who is lord of wild animals
Balat
Balar, Balor or Bolar, was an Irish god who belonged to the Fomorian race of giants. He had one eye on his forehead and another on the back of his skull, which was malignant and which he habitually kept closed. When he opened it, his gaze was deadly to the one on whom he fixed it. He is mainly known for having killed the king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Nuada, for which his grandson Lug killed him.
Morrigan
Mórrígan, whose name literally means "Queen of Ghosts" she was a tripartite war goddess of the ancient irish celts who called upon warriors to fight.
Collectively they were known as Morrigu, but their personalities were also called; Nemhain (panic), whose hideous aspect she assumed she only when she appeared before those who were going to die; Macha (battle), which appears in the form of a female raven and Badb , whose name derives from the Proto-Celtic bodbh, & # 34; crow & # 34;, aspect with which she incited the warriors to battle. She is commonly known to be involved in the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where she is both a helper and a hindrance to the hero Cúchulainn. She is often depicted as a raven or crow although she could take many different forms (cow, wolf or eel).
Lúgh/Lug
The widespread spread of the god Lug (apparently related to the mythological figure Lúgh in Irish) in Celtic religion is supported by the large number of places where his name appears, stretching across the Celtic world from Ireland to Gaul. The most famous of these are the cities of Lugdunum (the modern French city of Lyon), Lugdunum Batavorum (the modern city of Leiden), Lucus Augusta (the current city of Lugo) and Lucus Asturum (Lugo de Llanera), also the root Lug is present throughout the Cantabrian, as an example we have the tribe of Astures with the name Lugones (which gives its name to an Asturian town), Lugás which is a village in western Asturias or the term lugas which in the interior lands of Cantabria is It refers to the rays of the sun that sneak through the clouds.
Lug is described in Celtic myths as being close to the list of deities, and is usually described as having the appearance of a young man. Although he is the most important god in Irish mythology, he is not the supreme god, but rather the 'god without function'. because he has them all. Lug belongs to the Tuatha Dé Danann through his father, but to the Fomoré through his mother and in the second battle of Mag Tured, he prevails as leader of the Tuatha dé Danann and leads them to victory, killing his own grandfather Balar, the one with the pernicious eye. Its name comes from an Indo-European word meaning "white", "luminous", but also "raven", so this animal seems to be linked in some way with he. He has a solar aspect, but he is not a sun god, since this function was feminine among the Celts. His weapons were the javelin and the sling, and in Ireland a festival, Lughnasa (modern Irish lúnasa) is commemorated in his honour.
Others
Brigid (or Brigit), great Irish goddess of fire and poetry. She is considered the daughter of the Dagda and she belongs to the Tuatha Dé Danann. Her name comes from a radical meaning "height", "eminence", which indicates her preeminence. She appears in the Irish tradition with different names, which symbolize the social functions attributed to her, schematically she is triple, she belongs to the three classes of Indo-European society; she goddess of inspiration and poetry (priestly class), protector of kings and warriors (warrior class) and goddess of techniques (class of artisans, shepherds and farmers).
Goddesses of nature such as Epona, the Gallic or Gallo-Roman goddess of horses. It is the image of an ancient goddess-mare whose name comes from the Gallic ("epo" which is equivalent to horse, which corresponds to the Greek "hippos" and Latin "equus"), in addition to "Tailtiu" and "Macha".
Male gods include Goibniu, the blacksmith god of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is the lord of the artisans, he forges the weapons of the warriors and presides over a strange feast of immortality, in which the gods regenerate themselves by eating the "magical pigs"; of Manannán mac Lir. The name of Goibniu derives from the name "blacksmith" in celtic.
Dian Cecht, god of medicine in Irish tradition. Take part in the "Mag Tured" and opens a "fountain of health" in which he mixes numerous herbs that allow him to bring wounded or dead warriors back to life
Angus, Irish god of love, nicknamed "Mac Oc" (young son). Son of Dagda and adopted son of Manannan. He has a cloak of invisibility with which he wraps those he wants to protect.
The Gods of Wales
The gods of prehistoric Britain, also obscured by centuries of Christianity, come to us from Welsh manuscripts. Here there are two groups of lineages of gods; the children of Dôn and the children of Llyr, although any distinction of function between the two groups is unclear. Dôn, also known as Anna, Anu, Ana or Dana is the mother-goddess of the ancient Celts. In Ireland, she is the mother of the gods, the famous Tuatha Dé Danann. She is an archaic Indo-European divinity, known in India under the name of & # 34; Anna Purna & # 34; (Anna the Provider) and in Rome as "Anna Parenna". It is more than likely that this divine character was Christianized under the figure of "Santa Ana", mother of the Virgin Mary. On the other hand Llyr is the father of a lineage of gods, including Manannan, in the Irish tradition. He is a divinity linked to the sea, but he is not a god of the sea.
The Celts of Gaul worshiped various deities of whom we know little more than their names. The Roman writer Lucan (1st century) mentions the gods Taranis, Teutates and Esus ('Gods of the night'), but there is very little evidence that these were important Celtic deities. Some of these gods and goddesses may have been variants of others; Epona, for example, may have become the heroine Rhiannon in Wales, and Macha who was mainly worshiped in Ulster. Polytheistic peoples rarely care for and maintain their pantheons in the neat and orderly order that researchers would like to find them. Some of these are:
Cernunnos
Cernunnos (The Horned One), is evidently of great antiquity, but we know very little about him. It is probably he who appears enhanced on the famous silver cauldron found in Gundestrup, Denmark dating from 1 or 2 centuries BC. C.. It is believed that he is the god of abundance and master of wild animals. His nature is essentially earthly. He appears to be older, he has the ears and horns of a deer and wears a "torc", a kind of Gallic necklace. He is often accompanied by a ram-headed serpent. He appears as the master of wild animals, terrestrial and aquatic. He undoubtedly manifests strength, power and perpetuity (symbolized by the branches). He is represented as the donator of an altar with a basket of victuals, cakes and coins.
Belenus
Belenus was a regional deity worshiped mainly in northern Italy and on the coast of Mediterranean Gaul. He was primarily a god of agriculture. A large party called Beltaine is associated with him. Some still debate whether he really was a deity at all. His name means & # 34; bright and bright & # 34; and some believe that 'he' it simply represents the great bonfires of the Beltaine festival. Coinciding with this idea, the Asturian place-name Beleñu, from the Celtic Belenus, was added that of San Xuan, because this is the day of the summer solstice celebration in which the bonfires are made, coinciding with the day of Beltaine.
Teutates
Warrior god and protector of the tribes. He is identified as the Roman Mars and the Dagda of the Irish. He was part of the & # 34; gods of the night & # 34; along with Esus and Taranis, being a god who received many sacrifices from the druids. He was worshiped above all in Gaul and in Roman Britain.
Taranis
God of thunder, storm and sky. He was a feared god, whose worship spread throughout Gaul and part of Britain. In particular, his worship was very similar to that of Teutates, since to appease his anger sacrifices were dedicated to him and he was a member of the triad formed by these two plus Esus. He is related to Thor, due to his similarity with the powers of lightning and thunder, and the Romans identified him with Jupiter.
Esus
Bloody god, lord of the forests. Grouped by Lucan along with Teutates and Taranis as the main gods of the Gauls. He received sacrifices out of fear for being a savage and bloodthirsty god.
Heroes
Manannan
Manannan (or Mannawydan) ab Llyr (son of Llyr), Irish mythological character. He is a member of the Tuatha Dé Dannann. He is a powerful magician, owner of a flaming helmet that dazzles his enemies, an invulnerable breastplate, a cloak of invisibility, a ship that crosses the sea without oars or sails, and a sword called Fragarach that, among its many qualities, is capable of cutting anything. armor and control the wind. Native to the Isle of Man, which takes its name from him; there you can still see the ruins of what is supposed to be his gigantic tomb, near Peel Castle.
Ogmios
He represents eloquence, he is an old man all wrinkled, dressed in a lion skin; he carries mace, bow and quiver. He pulls crowds of men tied by the ears with a gold chain whose end passes through the god's pierced tongue. Ogmios is the sure eloquence of his power, the god who, through magic, attracts his faithful. He is also a symbol of the power of the ritual word that unites the world of men with the world of the gods. In his name blessings are proffered in favor of friends and curses against enemies.
In Ireland they call it "Ogma". He is the inventor of the & # 34; ogham & # 34;, set of magical signs whose strength is so great that it can paralyze the adversary. He is also a warrior who effectively participates in the "Mag Tured" battle.
Nuada Airgetlam
His name means "silver arm" and belongs to the Tuatha Dé Danann. During the first battle of "Mag Tured", he lost an arm and could not reign, the god Diancecht makes him a silver hand and thus assumes the role of king again and leads the Tuatha Dé Danann in the second battle of "Mag Tured".
Rhiannon
Welsh heroine, her name comes from "Rigantona": the great queen. She appears as an Amazon and chooses Pwyll as her husband. Her son Pryderi is taken from her at birth and she is accused of having made the child disappear, she is sentenced to carry on her back all visitors who go to the fortress of her husband.
Gwyddyon
He is one of the most famous heroes in Welsh lore. He is the son of Dana and father of Lleu Llaw Gyffes . Possibly his name can mean "wise". He represents the magical power inherited from the ancient druids.
Finn Mac Cumail
He is the warrior and mage, he is the son of Cumail and the father of Ossian. Fearsome warrior, he avenges his father killed in combat and reconstitutes the troop of "Fiana". his name means "White, handsome, blond and of good race." Poet and magician, he knows the twelve books of poetry and has the gift of enlightenment when he bites his thumb.
Cuchulain
He is the most famous character in the Irish epic. Some versions of the legend of him claim that he is the son of the god Lug himself. True name Setanta (where we recognize the British name for the road), he gets the nickname Cu-Chulainn (Culann's Hound) after killing the hound of the hounds, Culann, and promising to replace him as his protector. His warrior fury is such that he is capable of incredible contortions, with which he completely deforms his body, which accentuates his superhuman aspect and makes him a cyclopean being. From his head emanates the & # 34; Light of Hero & # 34;, sign of the demigods and characters inspired by divinity.
Cuchulainn is a "hero of light", a civilizing hero, personification of the society to which he belongs, but to which he confers a divine character. He also represents a kind of masculine solar cult (there is no solar god among the Celts).
Arthur or Artus
Arthur or Artús is the most important figure in Celtic tradition. Originally he was no more -historically- than a modest warlord, a chief of horsemen who rented out their services in a way to the Briton island kings around the year 500 AD, in the desperate fight they were holding against the Saxon invaders. His successes were such that the legend took over the character, greatly exaggerating his role and his power, and giving him a mythological dimension. This is how Arthur, whose name (actually a nickname) means "bear-like", or "son of the warrior bear" (from Old Irish Arto, "bear"; rīg, “warrior king”, which in turn could be the etymology of the Roman gens Arturius), acquired all the characteristics of a divinity from the Celtic tradition.
Other myths, of Celtic origin, came to be added to the primitive scheme, and Arthur became the symbol of an ideal Celtic world that functions around an axis constituted by the king. But this king only has power to the extent that he is present, even if it is without acting. Arthur and Merlin form the famous king-druid couple without which no Celtic society can exist. His father was King Uther Pendragon, who with Merlin's magic fathered a son, Arthur, with the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. The woman, who was called Igraine, had already borne the duke two daughters: Morgause, who would be the wife of King Lot of Lothian and mother of Sir Gawain, and Morgana, who learned the magical arts from Merlin and was called "Le Fay" or "The Fairy". She succeeds her father by ripping the sword Excalibur from the rock she was stuck in.
In all the Round Table novels, Arturo is distinguished by a certain passivity. It is his knights who act in his name, and in that of Queen Guinevere, who is the one who exercises sovereignty. Guinevere loves Lancelot of the Lake, Arthur's best knight and adopted son of the Lady of the Lake. The kingdom is divided in two when everyone finds out about the adultery thanks to the Fairy Morgana. Mordred (incestuous son of Arturo and Morgause) kills Arturo in a battle, and Morgana takes him to Avalon to take care of him and bury him.
Breogan
Breogán was the king of the Galicians in Galician mythology from Lebor Gabála Érenn. He was responsible for the colonization of Ireland, having a genetic relationship between Galicians and Irish. He is also credited with building the Tower of Hercules in present-day La Coruña, where a statue in his honor currently resides next to the monument.
Merlin
One of the best-known characters in Arthurian legend. Merlin had a real existence, seventy years after the historical Arthur. He was a wren of the North Bretons, in Lower Scotland, who, having lost his mind as a result of a battle, took refuge in a forest and began to prophesy. The legend took hold of the character, and various mythological elements came to crystallize on it. One finds in it the myth of the madman inspired by divinity, that of the "wild man", lord of the animals and balancer of nature, that of the child that has just been born and that reveals the future, and the of the magician
In elaborate legend, Merlin is the son of an incubus demon named Belial the Bestial, which explains his powers. He opposes the usurping king Vortigern, serves and advises Aurelius Ambrose (Emrys Gwledig), and becomes Uther Pendragon's permanent advisor and titular magician. He makes Arthur father Arthur, forces Arthur to be recognized as King of the Bretons, advises and helps him in his undertakings, and establishes the Round Table. He ends his days in the forest of Broceliande with his beloved Nimue, the Lady of the Lake.
Celtic worship
For the early Celts some trees were considered sacred. The importance of trees in Celtic religion is shown by the fact that many Eburonian tribal names contain some reference to the yew tree, while names like Mac Cuilinn (son of the holly) and Mac Ibar (son of the yew) appear in Irish myths.
Roman writers stated that the Celts practiced human sacrifice on a large scale which is supported peripherally by Irish sources; however, most of this information is second hand and based on hearsay. There are very few archaeological finds that prove the sacrificial process, so most contemporary historians tend to consider human sacrifice as rare within Celtic cultures.
There was also a warrior cult that focused on the severed heads of their enemies. The Celts provided the dead with weapons and other equipment that would indicate that they believed in an afterlife. Before burial, they would also cut off the dead person's head and smash the skull, perhaps to prevent it from wandering as a ghost.
The temples
It is often said that the Celtic peoples did not build any temples, and only worshiped outdoors, in groves of trees. Archeology has long shown this to be false, with the discovery of various temple structures throughout the known Celtic world. With the Roman conquest of parts of the Celtic world, a different type of Celtic-Roman temple called a fanum also developed.
The Druids
The Druids, who have been romanticized in modern literature, were the great hereditary class of priests responsible for transmitting and practicing the mythological and religious traditions of the Celtic peoples. The role of the druid can be compared to that of the Hindu caste of Brahmins or the Iranian magician, and how they specialized in the practices of magic, sacrifice and omens. Due to the similarities between these classes and between the divergent branches of descendants of Indo-European cultures, it has been proposed that the origins would be a similar class among the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
Druids were particularly associated with oak and mistletoe (a parasitic herb that normally grows on these trees), and it is believed that they used the latter to prepare hallucinogenic medicines or potions. To help understand the meaning, the word druid (Welsh derwydd ) is often believed to come from the root word meaning "oak" (Welsh derw ), though probably this Proto-Indo-European root may have had the general meaning of solidity.
Bards, on the other hand, were those who narrated through chants the stories that recalled the deeds of famous tribal warriors as well as the genealogies and family histories of the ruling strata among Celtic societies.
Celtic culture was prior to contact with Mediterranean civilizations, therefore not historical, so they did not leave their history in writing. However, the Celtic peoples often kept an intricate spoken history committed to memory and passed down by bards. Similar to other pre-literate cultures (see, for example, the Vedas of India, which were transmitted for centuries solely by memorizing an archaic form in Sanskrit that had not been spoken as a vernacular for hundreds of years), the bards they facilitated the memorization of such materials through the use of metrics and poetic rhyme.
There may also have been a class of "seers" or "prophets", the Strabo, from a Celtic word meaning "inspired" or "ecstatic". It is therefore possible that Celtic society had, in addition to the ritualistic and thaumaturgical religion of the druids, an element of shamanism for ecstatic communication with the world of the dead.
Meaning of prophecies in druidic ritual
Diodorus comments on the importance of prophets in druidic ritual: These men predict the future by observing the flight and calls of birds and by the sacrifice of sacred animals: all branches of society are in their power, in addition to matters very important they prepare a human victim, to which they stick a dagger in the chest; Watching the way his limbs convulse when he falls and the flow of his blood, they can read the future. These Greco-Roman commentaries are somewhat supported by archaeological excavations. At Ribemont in Picardy, France, holes filled with human bones and thigh bones deliberately arranged in rectangular patterns were found. This urn is believed to have been brought ashore by Julius Caesar while he was ruling Gaul. In a bog in Lindow, Cheshire, England a body was discovered that may also have been the victim of a druidic ritual. The body is now on display in the British Museum, London.
Festivities
The main festivities were quarterly and were related to the seasons and agricultural fertility.
- Imbolc (February 1st) would run in the southern hemisphere on 1 August): in relation to the delivery of the sheep, milk from that animal was offered to the goddess Brigid.
- Beltaine (May 1st) – it would run on November 1st in the southern hemisphere – fire from Bel or beautiful fire, in honor of the god Belenos. Hogueras were lit and animals were passed through the flames to defend them from the plagues.
- Lughnasa (August 1st) would run on February 1st in the Southern Hemisphere: Lug party (also called Lleu in Wales and Lugus in France). It was the harvest party.
- Samain (November 1st – it would run to May 1 in the southern hemisphere): or the end of the summer, it was the most important holiday and the beginning of the new year.
Modern Remnants
Tribal Celtic beliefs and behaviors have had a major impact on modern Celtic cultures. The mythology based (although not identical) on the pre-Christian religion, was common knowledge for the Celtic culture and transmitted orally until today, although it is currently waning. Various rituals involving acts of pilgrimage to sites such as hills and sacred wells believed to have healing power or beneficial properties are still carried out. Based on evidence from the European continent, the worship of various figures that are widely known for folklore from present-day Celtic lands or taking part in post-Christian mythology have been discovered in areas where no pre-Christian records exist.
Some of these are:
- Lugh in Ireland, Lugus in Galia, and Lleu Sometimes Llew) in Wales.
- Brighid or Bríd in Ireland, Brigindo in Galia, and possibly Brigantia in Brittany.
- Maponos in Brittany and Galia, Mabon in Wales, and a god probably related to Aengus Mac Óg in Ireland.
- Núadha Ireland and Nodens in Brittany.
- Badhbh Catha Ireland and Cathubodua in Galia.
Differences in names are a consequence of language deviations between different groups.