CUTIOS

First Quarter October 19, 2007 At zenith at sunset

Full Moon October 26, 2007 Eastern horizon

Last Quarter November 2, 2007 At nadir at sunset

New Moon November 10, 2007 Western horizon

The sixth month of the Celtic year is the last month of the Celtic summer. Cutios completes the turn of the seasons toward the winter: in Welsh, the word cuddio means to cover or conceal. While this is apt in terms of the weakening sun, it is even more pertinant to the stars that mark the summer sky: during the transition to winter, the dawn sky shows the Pleiades and Aldebaran setting as the morning rise of Scorpio begins, with its red star, Antares marking the onset of winter. Summer's end marks the completion of the harvest and all the activity to which effort was exerted over the preceding months has come to an end. In pastoral communities the cattle are taken in for over-wintering. Summer's end is written on occasion as samfuin and from this derives part of the meaning of the Samhain assembly soon to be called. Some accounts have the Assembly beginning a fortnight before the fire of Samhain itself. The middle of the year provides an opportunity for grievances to be settled, laws to be set and an assessment of the success of the summer toil. At this time the Fennians wound up their activities and came into the towns for lodging, 'and during the second half of the year, namely from Samhain to Bealtaine, 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 among them' - Giolla Dacker, sixteenth century. The lament for the end of summer is met with its counterpoint six months hence at Cantlos, the month of song. The summer lulls to sleep at Cutios, and Celtic poetry laments the end of summer, 'Cold til Doom!'.

503BC: CELTIC DAWN

In 503BC, the planet Saturn appeared in Taurus marking the start of a Celtic 30 year cycle as described by Plutarch.
Caer Australis presents the hypothesis that this was the first 'Celtic Calendar Year', at the dawn of the La Tène Period.
Shown above (using Cybersky) is the European dawn of October 503BC, Cutios, around the setting of the Pleiades.

The Celtic Calendar - Introductory Sections