the two-fold division of the celtic year

The most significant division of the Celtic year is that of its Summer and Winter halves, Samhradh and Geimhreadh in Irish. To fully appreciate the significance of the fire feasts, it needs to be remembered that Beltaine and Samhain define this division. Irish records tell us that these feasts marked the start of the first half of the Celtic year at summer, and the start of the second half at winter. Referring to Cormac's Glossary, recorded in ninth century Ireland, P.W. Joyce (1903) tells us 'for, the old authority adds, the whole year was [originally] divided into two parts - Summer from 1st May to 1st November, and Winter from 1st November to 1st May (2). This arrangement is also noted in the 16th century Irish story 'The pursuit of Giolla Dacker' which tells us: 'They divided the year into two parts. During the first half, namely, from Bealtaine to Samhain, they hunted each day with their dogs; and during the second half, namely from Samhain to Bealtaine, they lived...quartered...during the winter half of the year' (3).

Beltaine falls at the beginning of the old Irish month cét-Samhin 'first of the Summer' (4). When the Julian calendar was adopted in Christianised Ireland, this was the name given to the May month. But before the Roman calendar was adopted, the Celts used their own calendar. The Celtic calendar was known to classical historians Plutarch and Pliny the Elder (5), and was preserved in first century BC Gaul onto bronze tablets - called today the 'Coligny Calendar' or the 'Gaulish Calendar'. As in Ireland, the Gallic name for the first month of summer was also named for the season - it was called Samon 'Summer'. And like the story recorded from 16th century Ireland, so too did the ancient Celtic calendar begin with the Celtic summer, for Samon is the first month of the year in the Celtic calendar (6).

In the ancient Celtic calendar, the first month of the second half of the year was also named for the season it began - it was called Giammon 'Winter'. This name was also used by the Irish, for they named the month that began the winter half of the year cét-Gamred 'Winter' and applied this name to the November month of the Julian calendar (4). Samhain marked the beginning of this month, and eventually became the name for all of November in Ireland, while in Wales, this feast is called Calan Gaeaf, 'calend of Winter'.

the summer feasts

Beltaine is a day of great significance to the Celts. It is a time of beginnings; a time for purification and luck - hence the saying 'Eadar dà theine Bhealltuin', 'Between two Beltaine fires' (7). At Beltaine, the Celtic gods arrived in Ireland: 'It was on the first day of Beltaine, that is now called May Day, the Tuatha de Danaan came' (8). On this day, too, did the first men arrive: 'The day of Beltane commemorated the landing of the first invaders of Ireland, the sons of Partholon; the first fire, that of Uisnech, was lit by their latest successors' (9). On the day of Beltaine, Finn mac Cumhail gained the 'three arts' of prophesy, divination and incantation when he partook of the Salmon of Knowledge, and in a ninth century text we are told that his first words were "Cétemain, cain cucht, rée rosaír rann! (Beltaine, fair aspect, perfect season!)" (10). In the Welsh mabinogi of Pwyll, dating to the late eleventh century, Calan Mai - May day - is the day of birth of Rhiannon's son (11), and in the older Culhwch and Olwen, every May-calends is the day marriage: on this day 'till doomsday' is when Gwythur ap Greidyawl and Gwynn ap Nudd fight for the hand of Creiddylad (12).

An annual Beltaine feast was held at Tara. In the Irish tale Sluaghid Dathi, we are told of this feast as conducted by King Dathi (AD 405-429): 'The feast of Tara this year was solemnized on a scale of splendour never before equalled' (13). For the feast, the 'fires were lighted' and 'sports, games, and ceremonies' and 'religious solemnities' conducted. We are told again of the Beltaine fires at Tara in the 'Life of St Patrick' written in the seventh century preserved in the Book of Armagh. Patrick was in Ireland in the later 400s, and this time the feast is described as 'an idolatrous ceremony...with manifold incantations and magical contrivances...[with] Druids, singers, prophets...at Tara' (14). This description was used by the Christian writers for the purposes of introducing the festival of Easter to the Irish and to replace the feast of Beltaine - in the 'Life', we are told the feast at Tara was held 'on the same night as the holy Patrick was celebrating Easter'.

With the summer comes warmth to the land. After Beltaine, cattle were led out to pasture for grazing: Finn sings 'the mountain, supplying rich sufficiency carries off the cattle' (15), and at the Beltaine feast, the cattle would be led around or between the fires as a protection against disease. The fires were powerful in their protection, 'rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast' (16).

The festival of Lughnasa is the second of the four great Celtic fire feasts and is held at the middle of the Celtic summer. The festival is best known from the Irish Tailtiu games held annually each August, and is also known from Emain Macha, with its famous horse races. The festival was also held annually at Lugodurnum - modern Lyon - in Gaul, and so important were these games that the festival was rededicated to the Emperor Augustus after the Roman conquest.

Emer explained the meaning of the festival to Cú Chulaind: Bron-Trogain is 'the beginning of autumn, for it is then the earth is in labour, that is, the earth under fruit, Bron-Trogain, the trouble of the earth' (17): following the festival sees in the harvest and Autumn, after the equinox in March.

the winter feasts

The feast of Samhain marks the onset of winter. With the winter cold returns to the land, and the time for pasturing is ended. With the cold, both man and beast returned to quarters, and the winter hearths were lit from the Samhain fires. The themes of Samhain are otherworldly, with visits by kings to the otherworld realm, druidical prophesy, and images abound of the dead and ghosts travelling abroad on this night and of at this time. This festival was adapted into Christianity through its association with All Hallows Eve/All Saints Day (18): Pope Gregory transferred the observance of All Saints Day to November 1st in 834 - this itself was an adaptation of the Roman feast for the dead, the Fernalia, held on February 21st, that had been moved to May 13 as All Saints day by Pope Boniface IV during the 600s.

With the onset of winter, the cold of death spread across the land - 'After November the blackberries are no longer wholesome, for the pooka has spoiled them' (19). With the sun unable to sustain its warming rays, cold emerged from the depths of the earth: 'From the cave of Cruachan ... on Samain Eve, a crowd of horrible [monsters] rushed out, and ... their poisonous breath withered up everything it touched' (20). Also with the cold comes death: In the Samhain tale Echtra Nerai 'The Adventure of Nera' the síde emerge to destroy the court of Ailill and Medb in Connacht, and when Nera pursues them through an uaim 'cave' he became one of the dead (21).

The barriers to the otherworld were removed at Samhain. In Irish myth Oengus the mac Oc was invited by the Dagda to the kingdom of Bruig na Bóinde (22) and in Welsh myth Pwyll was invited by Arawn to the kingdom of Annwfyn (11). Finn mac Cumhail was able to see across the otherworldly barrier, for 'on Samain Night, Finn was near two shees ... and he saw a great fire in each of the duns, and heard persons talking in them' (20). The power of prophesy also came from the otherworld: Fiachna, king of Ulster, had a familiar fer-síde, or 'fairy-man', who used to tell him future events (20), and in the Sluaghid Dathi, the fortunes of King Dathi were foretold by the Druids of Rath Archaill, who 'consulted the clouds of the men of Erinn' on the night of Samhain (13). Later in Irish folklore, 'On November eve ... girls set a table with food in the name of the devil, that the fetch of their future lover may come through the window and eat of the food' (19).

Oimelc, at the eve of February, is the feast that precedes the spring, and has the folk meaning of Ewes milk: Emer tells Cú Chulaind that "Oimell, the beginning of spring...is the time when the sheep come out and are milked; For Oi, in the language of poetry, is the name for sheep" (23). The ninth century Cormac's Glossary, tells us a similar story, where it is derived from ói, a sheep, and melc or melg, milk: 'ói-melg ewe-milk, for that is the time the sheep's milk comes' (24). Another name recorded for this festival is Imbolg with a meaning of "washing"(25).

Of the four fire feasts, that of Oimelc is likely to have been dedicated to the Celtic Goddess. The feast was transformed by Christianity into Féil Brighde, the Feast of St Brigid, who was a nun in the late 400s around the time of Patrick, and whose name was taken from the goddess Brigit. Brigit's father was the Dagda, whose famous harp called forth the seasons (1). Cormac's Glossary tells us that Brigit "was a goddess whom poets worshipped, for very great and very noble was her superintendence, therefore call they her goddess of poets by this name, whose sisters were Brigit, woman of smith-work, and Brigit, woman of healing, namely goddesses - from whose names Brigit was with all Irishmen called a goddess' (26). From this we can understand the terms 'Brigit' and 'Goddess' to be synonymous: the Three Brigits are the Celtic Tripartite Goddess.

the ancient nature of the celtic festivals

The division of the Celtic year into its summer and winter halves is very old. In the Irish names of the months that began the two halves, namely cét-Samhin for summer and cét-Gamred for winter, we see a continuation of the names used by the Celts of Gaul for the same months, namely Samon and Giammon. The Celtic calendar was described by Pliny the Elder in the first century BC as being constructed of 'their months, of their years, and of their saeculi [ages] of thirty years' and Plutarch recorded the skills of Celtic astronomy of the first century BC and noted a festival among the Celts every thirty-years when Cronus (Saturn) entered the sign of Taurus' (5). Diodorus of Sicily in the first century BC also noted the significance of Taurus in a festival of the Celts of Britain: 'Apollo...danced continuously the night through from the vernal equinox until the rising of the Pleiades' (27).

The 'rising of the Pleiades' refers to their heliacal rising, that is, when they rise at the same time as the sun, around the middle of May. The Greek and Roman sun god Apollo finds his Celtic counterpart in Belinos. The celebration of Belinos with the May rising of the Pleiades in Britain finds its astronomical nature paralleled in the thirty year festival noted by Plutarch, explained by Pliny the Elder as the Celtic thirty year age, at the start of the year at Samon, later cét-Samhin, now May.

The timing of the heliacal rising of the Pleiades may point to original astronomical cues taken by the Celts for the turning points of the year (28). Closely associated with the Pleiades star cluster is the bright red star Aldebaran: the rising of the stars of the constellation of Taurus may have been the celestial signal for the summer half of the year, as these always occurred in the month of Samon. These May heliacal risings are matched to the November heliacal rising of the other bright red star, Antares. Perhaps this was used to signal Samhain and the start of the winter season during the month of Giammon. It is notable also that the rising of Sirius in late July and Capella in February occur around the feasts of Lugnasa and Oimelc, respectively.

It is worth noting here the ancientness of the idea of celebrating the festivals on the eves of the modern calendar months. Celebrations beginning in the evening reflect the ancient Celtic custom of marking the beginning of a day at sunset - this is well known from Julius Caesar's cultural notes on the Celts in his 'Gallic Wars', where he writes, 'in celebrating birthdays, the first of the month, and new year's day, they go on the principle that the day begins at night' (29). Caesar also listed the principle deities of the Celts (30). He noted that 'Apollo', that is Belinos, was one of the principal gods of the Celts.

In Caesar's list of Celtic deities, he notes that 'Mercury' was the inventor of all the arts. The god Lugos was skilled in craftsmanship. Lugh holds the epithet Iolhanach, 'of the many skills', and Lleu Llaw Gyffes means 'of the skilful hand', while Iberian Lugo had a dedication inscribed to him by shoemakers there (31). Lugh's name is celebrated across Celtic Europe in place names originally called 'Fortress of Lugos', Lugodunum and now known as Lyon, Loudon and Leon in Gaul, as Gloucester and Carlisle in Britain, and as Leignitz in Silesia, and when referred to as 'The Fair One', Uinos, Find, Gwyn, he is celebrated in such places as Vienna (Uindobona). Like the Irish Tailtiu games, the festival at Lugodurnum was held in his honour.

'Minerva' in Caesar's list refers to the tripartite Celtic goddess. From Cormac's glossary in Ireland, the term 'goddess' was synonymous with tripartite Brigit, and she was known throughout the Celtic lands - in Gaul she is named on an inscription as 'Brigindoni' and in Britain as 'Brigantia' (30).

The widespread observance of the deities with whom the fire feasts are associated throughout the Celtic lands in ancient times, and the great antiquity of the Celtic calendrical system, particularly its recorded saeculum festival whose timing at Samon coincides with the Beltaine festival, are very important pointers to the ancientness of the Celtic fire feasts. Since their adaptation into the Roman calendrical and cultural systems, some of the potency of these feasts has diminished, but they persist in providing us with a distinct means to mark the seasons and celebrate our place in the world.

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REFERENCES

(1) From an overview of the Irish deities in: Charles Squire (1905) 'Celtic Myth and Legend Poetry and Romance' re-published as 'Celtic Myth and Legend' in 1975 by Newcastle Publishing, p. 116. John Rhys (1886) 'The Hibbert Lectures 1886. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom' Williams and Norgate, London (1892), p. 75.

(2) P.W.Joyce (1903) 'A Social History of Ancient Ireland' Longmans, Green and Co., London. p. 390.

(3) P.W.Joyce (1907) 'Old Celtic Romances' Wordsworth Editions Ltd in association with FLS Books, The Folklore Society (2000) p. 173. "For this was the manner in which the Fena used to spend their time. They divided the year into two parts. During the first half, namely, from Bealtaine [the first of May] to Samhain [the first of November], they hunted each day with their dogs; and during the second half, namely from Samhain to Bealtaine, they lived in the mansions and the betas [the houses of public hospitality] of Erin; so that there was not a chief or a great lord or a keeper of a house of hospitality in the whole country that had not nine of the Fena quartered on him during the winter half of the year".

(4) P.B. Ellis (1998) 'The Ancient World of the Celts' Constable & Robinson Ltd, revised and republished as 'A Brief History of the Celts' (2003) Constable & Robinson Ltd, London. p. 117.

(5) Plutarch wrote of the astronomical associations of the Celtic calendar system known from the 1st century BC - see ref (3), p. 119; Pliny the Elder describes the calendrical workings in his discourse on druidical practice, see for example Sir James Frazer (1922) 'The Golden Bough' 1993 reprint, Wordsworth, Ware, Hertfordshire, p. 659.

(6) Some key references to research into the Celtic calendar archaeological find include:

1991 Hans-Rudolf Hitz: Der gallo-lateinische Mond- und Sonnen-Kalender von Coligny

1992 Garrett S. Olmsted: The Gaulish calendar

1997 Jean-Michel LeContel: Un calendrier celtique: le calendrier gaulois de Coligny

1998 Annemarie Bernecker: Der galloroemische Tempelkalender von Coligny

1999 Joseph Monard: Histoire du calendrier gaulois - le calendrier de Coligny

2001 Garrett S. Olmsted: A definitive reconstructed text of the Coligny calendar

Garrett Olmstead's work is available through the Journal of Indo-European Studies - monograph 39.

(7) In McBain, A (1982) 'An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language', http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/index.html, the definition for Beltaine is given under Bealtuinn: May-Day, Irish béalteine, Early Irish beltene, belltaine, belo-te(p)niâ (Stokes), "bright-fire", where belo- is allied to English bale ("bale-fire"), Anglo-Saxon bael, Lithuanian baltas, white. The Gaulish god-names Belenos and Belisama are also hence, and Shakespeare's Cym-beline. Two needfires were lighted on Beltane among the Gael, between which they drove their cattle for purification and luck; hence the proverb: "Eadar dà theine Bhealltuinn" - Between two Beltane fires.

(8) Lady Gregory (1904) 'Gods and Fighting Men. The story of the Tuatha de Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland, arranged and put into English' The Coole Edition: 1970 reprint Colin Smythe Ltd., Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, p. 28.

(9) Henri Herbert (1934) 'The Greatness and Decline of the Celts' Kegan Paul, Trench, Truber & Co. Ltd, London. pp. 241-243.

(10) Ref (7), p. 74.

(11) 'Pwyll Lord of Dyfed' in Jones, G. & Jones, T. (1949) 'The Mabinogion' Everyman, London; Gantz, J. (1976) 'The Mabinogion' Penguin. London.

(12) 'How Culhwch won Olwen' in Jones, G. & Jones, T. (1949) 'The Mabinogion' Everyman, London, p. 90 and p. 107; Gantz, J. (1976) 'The Mabinogion' Penguin. London: p. 148 and p. 168.

(13) The story is found in the Book of Leinster, and called the Sluaghid Dathi co Sliabh n-Ealpa, or the Expedition of Dathi to the Alpine Mountains. Eugene O'Curry (1796-1862) provides us with an English account of the story in his 1855 and 1856 'Lectures on the manuscript materials of ancient Irish history delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland', published in 1861 by James Duffy, London, pp. 284-288.

(14) Muirchú Moccu Machteni of Armagh 'Life of St Patrick': written in the seventh century and surviving in the Book of Armagh: "...on the same night as the holy Patrick was celebrating Easter, there was an idolatrous ceremony...with manifold incantations and magical contrivances...when the Druids, singers, prophets...had been summoned to Laoghaire...at Tara": see: Ellis, P.B. (1994) 'The Druids', Constable, London, p. 76.

(15) From: 'Early Irish Lyrics. Eighth to Twelfth Century. Edited with translation, notes and glossary' by Gerard Murphy (1956:1970 reprint) Clarendon Press, Oxford. pp. 156-157. Here is the "tentative translation made by O'Donovan of a part of the first poem which Finn mac Cool is said to have composed after his eating of the salmon of knowledge", published by Douglas Hyde in his 1894 work, "The Story of Early Gaelic Literature" T.Fisher Unwin, Ltd. London, p. 34:

"May-day, delightful time!
How beautiful the colour!
The blackbirds sing their full lay.
Would that Laighay were here!
The cuckoos sing in constant strains.
How welcome is ever the noble brilliance of the seasons!
On the margin of the branching woods the summer swallows skim the stream.
The swift horses seek the pool.
The heath spreads out its long hair.
The weak fair bog-down grows.
Sudden consternation attacks the signs;
the planets, in their courses running exert and influence;
the sea is lulled to rest;
flowers cover the earth."

(16) Sir James Frazer (1890 and 1922) The Golden Bough , 1994 reprint, Chancellor Press/Octopus, London. 'The Beltane Fires', p. 619.

(17) 'The Courting of Emer' In: Lady Gregory (1902) 'Cuchulain of Muirthemne. The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster arranged and put into English'. Colin Smythe Gerrards Cross (1970).

(18) Provided in any of the several compendia entitled 'Dictionary of Popes' - see Gregory and Boniface IV.

(19) W.B.Yeats (1888) 'Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry Edited and Selected by William Butler Yeats' Reprinted (1986) in 'A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore' Compiled and Edited by Claire Booss, Avenel Books, NY., Crown Publishers, Inc. New York. pp. 2-3.

(20) P.W. Joyce (1903) 'A Social History of Ancient Ireland' Longmans, Green and Co., London. pp. 264-266

(21) An account of Echtra Nerai is found in Myles Dillon and Nora Chadwick (1967) 'The Celtic Realms', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

(22) 'The Wooing of Étaíne' In: Jeffrey Gantz (1981) 'Early Irish Myths and Sagas' Penguin, London. p. 41.

(23) 'The Courting of Emer' In: Lady Gregory (1902) 'Cuchulain of Muirthemne. The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster arranged and put into English'. Colin Smythe Gerrards Cross (1970), p. 42. An extended version of the conversation between Emer and Cú Chulainn (from the Harleian MS: Harl 5280) is published online at: www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G301021/ Paragraph 55, page 245)

(24) Eugene O'Curry (1855) 'Lectures on the MS Materials of Ancient Irish History' James Duffy, Dublin (1861), p. 17.

(25) P.W.Joyce (1903) 'A Social History of Ancient Ireland' Longmans, Green, and Co., London, p.388. "Ewe-milk" is generally considered to be a folk etymology by scholars today, who believe that Imbolc was the standard form of the name, derived from imb + folc "wash all around" - making Imbolc a festival of purification, such as we see in many other cultures in the spring: See for instance: Eric Hamp, "imbolc, oimelc", Studia Celtica, 14/15 (1979/1980), Jan de Vries, "Keltische Religion" (Stuttgart, 1961) and Séamas Ó Catháin, 'The festival of Brigit the Holy Woman', Celtica 23 (1999), and from the original Tochmarc Emire la Coinculaind in the Harleian MS (Harl. 5280 ref 22 above): [55]........"Co h-óimolcc .i. taiti and erraig i. imme-folc .i. folc ind erraig & folc in gemrid."

(26) Cormac's Glossary tells us, Brigit "was a goddess whom poets worshipped, for very great and very noble was her superintendence, therefore call they her goddess of poets by this name, whose sisters were Brigit, woman of smith-work, and Brigit, woman of healing, namely goddesses - from whose names Brigit was with all Irishmen called a goddess", from which we can understand the terms 'Brigit' and 'goddess' to be synonymous - The Three Brigits are the Celtic Tripartite Goddess. Cormac's Glossary derives her name from breo-shaighit, 'fiery arrow', with the meaning of poetic inspirations being like fiery arrows.

Douglas Hyde (1899) 'A Literary History of Ireland' Ernest Benn Limited, London (1967), pp. 53-54.

(27) Diodorus of Sicily, first century BC, 'Concerning the Island of the Hyperboreans', quoted from Diodorus Book II, Loeb Library translation in: Gerald S. Hawkins (1966) 'Stonehenge Decoded' Souvenir Press, 1966: Fontana, 1971, pp. 165-166.

(28) A.Gaspani in 'Astronomy in the Celtic Culture', published on the internet at: http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/~gaspani/celtcab.txt. Gaspiani used computer modelling to determine the dates around 500 BC for the heliacal risings of the most brilliant stars observable by the Celts, and provides the following information:

Gregorian Date	Celtic Fire Feast	Heliacal Rising of the Star	Colour of Star	Apparent Magnitude of Star
May 18	Beltaine	Aldebaran	Red	0.85
July 28	Lughnasa	Sirius	White	-1.46
November 7	Samhain	Antares	Red	0.96
February 13	Imbolc	Capella	Yellow	0.80

(29) Here is Caesar's full Dis Pater paragraph, first published by Penguin books in 'Caesar The Conquest of Gaul' Translated by S.A. Handford in 1951. Handford (1898-1978) was a lecturer in Swansea and reader at King's College, London. The quote is from the 1982 edition, p. 142:

"VI.18. The Gauls claim all to be descended from Father Dis,
declaring that this is the tradition preserved by the Druids.
For this reason they measure periods of time not by days but by nights;
and in celebrating birthdays, the first of the month, and new year's day,
they go on the principle that the day begins at night.
As regards the other usages of daily life,
the chief difference between them and other peoples is that their children
are not allowed to go up to their fathers in public
until they are old enough for military service;
they regard it as unbecoming for a son who is still a boy
to stand in his father's sight in a public place."

(30) Sir John Rhys (1886) from The Hibbert Lectures, 1886: 'Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom' published in 1892 by Williams and Norgate, London. p. 75. Also Julius Caesar (VI, 17), ref 28, p. 142.

(31) Moffatt, A. The Sea Kingdoms (2001). HarperCollins, London.

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