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Celtic Seasons & Festivals
Spring Queen
And all the woods are alive with the murmur and sound of spring...
- Oscar Wilde
Spring Equinox
All the spring may be hidden in the single bud, and the low ground nest of the lark may hold the joy that is to herald the feet of many rose-red dawns.
- Oscar Wilde
Emergence
Remember, we say that a flower is blooming whether it is half, three-quarters or full bloom.
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Our Lady of Stability
"Be like the bird perched for a moment on too frail twigs, that feels the branch bending and yet sings, knowing that it has wings!"
~
"Soyez comme l'oiseau posè pour un instant
Sur des rameaux trop frêles,
Qui sent ployer la branche et qui chante pourtant,
Sachant qu'il a des ailes!"
- Victor Hugo
Bealtaine Queen
Bealtaine is mostly understood to mean "bright fire" or "lucky fire", exact translations vary as it is a very old Irish word, however the reference to fire is integral. Bealtaine is a festival that occurs on 1st May, and the festival itself was one of flame and revolved around a central bonfire. It marked the start of summertime and was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. May Day celebrations are observed throughout Europe.
May Day was an important day in the Irish rural calendar as it marked the period when the livestock were herded up to live on the summer pastures as it was the beginning of the fresh grass season.
The period from midnight on May Eve (April 30th) to dawn on May Day was believed to be a liminal time, and many extraordinary beliefs and customs surrounded it. Particularly great concern was extended to milk and butter- the fear of it being stolen supernaturally, by witches or faeries was a huge threat to the livelihood of the house for the coming year.
One of the main traditions of Bealtaine was the lighting of a huge bonfire, from which a festival flame would be used to light other bonfires. People would walk between the fires, sometimes accompanied by livestock, to receive blessing.
"For the druids used to make two fires with great incantations, and to drive the cattle between them against the plagues, every year."
The Wooing of Emer by Cú Chulainn (translated by Kuno Meyer).
Other traditions include charms and folklore, long forgotten agricultural customs with cattle and transhumance, Irish fairs, and the stranger beliefs of Whitsuntide (considered one of the unluckiest days of the year).
The collection of flowers was another important custom and making them into posies. Usually they were gathered before dusk on May Eve but sometimes the tradition held that they should be collected before dawn on May Day (Danaher, 1972: 88). It was also a custom to tie flowers to the bridles of horses, the tails or horns of cows and also to milk churns/dashes.
Bábóg na Bealtaine
Today 5th of May marks the astronomical date for Bealtaine this year 2023, making today the exact half way point between spring equinox and summer solstice. Also known as Cétshamhain, 'first of summer' as the opposite of Samhain, 'summer's end'.
Through out the week I've been indulging myself in some Bealtaine traditions and feeling inspired i drew this! This is a Bábóg na Bealtaine, the May Baby. It was a doll made from straw, similar to the Brideóg used on St. Brigid's Day, decorated with ribbons and flowers and attached to a pole. (McGarry, Irish Customs and Rituals, How our ancestors celebrated life and the seasons.) The custom was followed by a somewhat suggestive dance that is believed to have been intended to secure the success of the year's crops.
In E. Estyn Evans book Irish Folk Ways, it is suggested that the custom may have been linked to fertility; in this curious custom a figure of a female (the May baby) was placed on a pole and a man and a woman, also dressed up in costume, would then dance around the figure "in a vulgar display". Naturally, that description only serves to increase my curiosity.
Bábóg na Bealtaine is also the name for one of many versions of the traditional Irish song Thugamar Féin An Samhradh Linn (We Brought The Summer With Us). It is a celebration of nature and the blossoming fertile summer!
Flidhais Foltchaoin
In Ireland the time of Bealtaine was associated with releasing the cattle back onto the pasture and for this reason always brings the figure of Flidhais to mind for me.
Flidhais is connected with cattle and deer and is a somewhat elusive and mysterious figure as she features very little in Irish mythology, yet holds much allure.
In the Lebor Gabala Erenn Flidais is the owner of magical cattle, and also had a herd of deer that gave milk like cows (Keating, 1857). One of which magical cows was called Maol, and in the Driving of the Herd of Flidais Maol could feed 300 men from one milking (Leabar na h-Uidre, nd).
In this tale we also encounter Flidais's sexual adeptness as only she could satisfy her lover Fergus; without her it would take 7 women to do the same (Ó hÓgáin, 2006).
Dáithí Ó hógáin states that her name is associated with milk and milking, and her epithet is foltchaoin meaning "soft haired" (Ó hÓgáin, 2006).
She was mother to possibly six children, referenced in Lebor Gabala Erenn and the Metrical Dindeshenchas.
In the Driving of the Herd of Flidais she is the source of the conflict; married to Aillil Fionn she falls for Fergus Mac Roich and asks that he take her away from her husband, and thus a bloody battle ensues. Perhaps implied in the Banshenchus when it states: "Flidais...Though slender she destroyed young men. She decreed hard close fighting." (Banshenchus, nd).
Flidais is at one point referenced as a healer in the Driving of the Herd of Flidais, where she tended to and healed the men wounded in battle (Leabhar na h-Uidre, nd).
From what we can gather of Flidhais she presents as both domestic and wild, maternal and sexual, and ultimately a goddess of nourishment and sustenance. Modern Celtic pagans often associate Flidais with the woodlands and with wild animals, although in mythology she is equally connected to domestic animals (Daimler).
As always, I'm cherry picking from the shoulders of giants!
The Ogham in my drawing reads, "Nourishing" and "Wildness".
Summer Solstice
I will not of a certainty believe that there is nothing in the sunset, where our forefathers imagined the dead following their shepherd the sun, or nothing but some vague presence as little moving as nothing.
- WB Yeats, The Celtic Twilight
Winter Solstice 2023
Winter Solstice 2022
Winter Solstice - Caer & Aengus 2021
Winter Solstice 2020
Chambered burial mounds or cairns, like Maes Howe on Orkney and Newgrange in Ireland are aligned so that on the day of the winter solstice the sun's rays shine down the entrance of the burial mound and into the burial chamber itself. This painting is of Newgrange.
... We watch through murk
And overboiling cloud for the milted glow
Of sunrise, for an eastern dazzle
To send first light like share-shine in a furrow
Steadily deeper, farther available,
Creeping along the floor of the passage grave
To backstone and capstone, holding its candle
To the world inside the astronomic cave.
- Seamus Heaney, A Dream of Solstice
Imbolc
Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh or Lughnasa is a Gaelic festival, marking the end of the period of summer growth and the beginning of the autumn harvest.
Lughnasa celebrates the fruition of the year’s work with the weaning of calves and lambs, the ripening of corn, and the first apples, pears, bilberries, blackberries, and grapes.
Lughnasadh Queen
Lughnasadh is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. It was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man and traditionally held on 1st August, or about half way between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox.
The festival borrows its name from the Irish god Lugh and legend has it that Lugh established a harvest festival and funeral games, Áenach Tailteann, in honour of his foster mother Tailtiu who is said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. These games continued to be celebrate as late as the 18th century and the festival was a time of gatherings, ceremonies, feasting, trading and athletic games.
According to folklorist Máire MacNeill, evidence suggests that the religious rites included an offering of the First Fruits, a feast of the new food, the sacrifice of a bull, and a ritual dance-play. In recent centuries, Lughnasadh gatherings were typically held on top of hills and mountains, and included many of the same activities.
Cónocht an Fhómhair - Autumn Equinox
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
- W.B Yeats, The Song of Wandering Aengus
Under a Samhain Moon
...The colour black preponderates in her; all that she inspires is nocturnal and profound.
Her eyes are two caverns where mystery vaguely stirs and gleams; her glance illuminates like a ray of light; it is an explosion in the darkness.
I would compare her to a black sun if one could conceive of a dark star overthrowing light...
- Charles Baudelaire
Samhuinn
Samhain is the ancient Celtic festival celebrated on the first of November.
Samhain is derived from the Gaelic word samhuinn from Old Irish samain, literally meaning "summer's end". From Old Irish sam; "summer", and fuin; "end". It marked the start of winter and of the new year.
I've written Samhuinn in Irish Ogham in the centre of the drawing.
Rebirth - Winter Solstice
On the menhir stone I've written 'Rebirth' in Irish Ogham script.