#tradition celte

[sierrawitch]

Celtic Customs: Death

by autumn sierra

In honor of my friend who just recently lost a loved one, and my sister who witnessed a tragic death that she was helpless to prevent, I thought it the proper moment to reflect and write on some Celtic death customs and traditions of remembering passed loved ones.

Scotland

Before burial, the body of recently passed relatives were kept in the home, dressed and in their own beds. Family and friends would throw a celebration in honor of their lives. The Scots view death as an opportunity to both mourn the loss of a soul, but to laugh and be merry in their memory to find balance in contrary. All the furniture in the departed’s home—especially mirrors—would be covered with white linens and everyone would play music, dance, sing, and share stories around the hearth to keep memories alive.

A traditional custom practiced by the older members of the family and community include a plate of salt and a plate of soil laid on the chest of the deceased person. The soil represents the body as a physical vessel, and the salt represent the purity of the soul. It was thought that without this ritual, the ghost would not be able to rest, and would haunt their family.

Another custom was to stay up at night and watch the body, also known as a lykewake. This is now seen as a sign of respect for the deceased, but in olden times people believed that the devil would steal the body of their loved one unless they kept safe watch over it. The youth of the family were given whiskey at the beginning of the night and some tea or beer with bread at some point in the middle of the night, and would take on this responsibility for the family. The watchers would tell stories, reminisce, and sometimes recite verses from the Bible.

It was also considered bad luck to see the body of the recently deceased without touching it. A week of bad dreams would follow unless this superstition was taken seriously.

Our perception of death in the modern world is one of detachment and taboo. Many people are squeamish about even seeing a dead body, much less watching or touching one in the night. But to the Celtic people, death was not a taboo thing which had to be hidden, as it is a natural, inevitable part of being alive.

The pivotal connecting moments of birth and death link the physical and metaphysical worlds to each other. Similar to the thinning of the veil during Samhain, we each witness a thinning of the veil when we are born, and when we die. In death, the spirit of the deceased moves across the veil and into the Otherworld, the lands of gods, sìth (spirits), and the deceased.

Ireland

The Irish are no strangers to pain and loss, having experienced famine, colonization, and poverty over its long history. There are many customs that have been cultivated over generations to venerate and remember the dead which are unique to their culture, but the Irish Wake is one of the most well known funeral traditions around the world.

Most likely giving root to Scottish customs, the tone of an Irish Wake is a time of mourning and celebration. It’s an opportunity to grieve and and honor life as a treasured miracle. Those attending an Irish Wake will participate and music making, singing, and drinking, especially if the deceased was an elderly member of the community, or ill long term. However, in the instance of a young person’s or child’s death, the wakes are much more solemn and respectful of the tragedy. Family and friends meet in the home of the deceased to recount memories together, grieve, and celebrate the life lost.

The exact origins of the Irish Wake are unknown, but it’s believed that it was heavily influenced by elements of Paganism and may have originated with the Ancient Celts. The Celts believed in life after death and thought that when a person died, they then moved onto a better life in the Otherworld. The Ancient Celts saw death only as a means for a new beginning, which is where the festivities come into play.

The Irish Wake incorporates the tradition of watching over the bodies of the deceased, and some say that the term ‘wake’ originates from the Irish tradition. Lit candles were placed closely around the body and tobacco was smoked by male attendees as they stood guard against the potential of the devil seizing the deceased. It was believed that the smoke would help keep malicious spirits at bay and stop the devil from stealing the soul. Clocks were also often stopped at the time of death and mirrors covered to further protect the body, as mirrors can act as portals to other—maybe not so friendly—worlds.

The Afterlife

In ancient Celtic religion, there was a belief in an afterlife in the Otherworld (as mentioned earlier), which is considered almost like a mirror of life on Earth but without disease, pain, and sorrow. This eliminated the aspect of fear when it came to passing on since the soul continues to live following its leaving the head (where it was believed to reside). Prayers were made to the Celtic gods, and sacrifices—both animal and human—food, weapons, and precious items were ritually offered to them to bless and allow safe passage of the deceased to the Otherworld.

The gods played a fairly significant role in the lives of the Ancient Celts as evidenced by their religious practices and the existence of protective amulets and talismans within their tombs. Alongside these, Celtic tombs and burial sites contained a wide range of objects, from tools to jewellery, which prepared the soul for the journey to the Otherworld (similarly to how the Egyptians prepared their deceased for the journey in the Duat).

Cremations & Burials

The Ancient Celts buried the deceased in tombs, and alternatively cremated their bodies, a practice beginning in the early second century. Excarnation was also not uncommon, during which the body was left exposed to the elements for a period and the bones were then either buried or kept for religious ceremony.

Burials of warriors and rulers were often rife with personal belongings and other treasures including weapons, armour, gold jewellery, and even large objects like chariots and waggons. Other common items included tools, extra clothing, grooming equipment, oil lamps, food, drink, eating utensils, and gaming counters, again, in preparation for their journey through the veil.

How do these customs compare to the ones of your culture, and your family?

What is your perception of death in relation to life, and how does it mentally or emotionally affect you?

Are you afraid of death? Why?

If you could personify who or what death is, what would that look like?

I urge everyone to challenge their instilled views of what death is and what it means not only for the people witnessing it, but also for those who go through its process. Many people fear that unknown reality, but it’s something we all share and experience eventually in life. You’re never truly alone. And isn’t that thought a bit comforting?

[castilestateofmind]

"Do not think of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as a people who died out a long time ago. They live, and their culture lives, in us; transformed by time and the influences of other cultures maybe, but still recognisable at the core of our values, language, and culture. By understanding them, we understand ourselves."

-Ceisiwr Serith.

[francepittoresque]

TRADITION | Toussaint, Samain, nuit d’Halloween et Fête des morts ➽ http://bit.ly/Samhain-Halloween-Toussaint Existant voici plus de 2500 ans et se déroulant tous les 31 octobre, la fête celtique de Samain fut adoptée par les Gaulois, marquant la fin de l’été et le début d’une nouvelle année. Grégoire IV fixant en 837 la Toussaint au 1er novembre, le Samain devint « Halloween »

[raffaellopalandri]

Summer Solstice

Today we celebrate the Summer Solstice in the Northern Emisphere. Image Taken from Internet The longest day, the shortest night. A turning point in the wheel of the year, where the sun reaches its zenith and bathes the Northern Hemisphere with its light. This is the Summer Solstice, a phenomenon not just of scientific wonder, but of ancient reverence. From the pyres of Celtic festivals to the…

[grandboute]

Festival interceltique de Lorient 2023 - du 4 au 13 août

5e édition - Année de l'Irlande

C'est dans 3 mois !!...

[sorenserotonin]

does anyone know resources for me to learn more about celtic traditions from before christianity? i have predominantly celtic ancestry and want to learn more about it. i also have nordic ancestry and i will probably learn about heathenism but im focusing on the celtic side now since i have more celtic than nordic.

[lilaiamoreli]

(via Samhain: Fire and Winter amongst the Celts)

[rhysintherain]

The thing about people like this (aside from their desperate love of ahistorical narratives, of course) is that they believe there's only ever been one civilisation, and it belongs to them. Everyone else is just copying it, badly, or doesn't really count.

They also don't believe in positive or neutral change. There's just The Way Things Should Be (the way their ancestors or their god made it, depending on the individual) and The Inevitable Cultural Decay caused by anyone they don't agree with.

In this cardboard cutout narrative, they need the legacy of history but they can't comprehend that morals shift over centuries, cultures over decades, and borders and identities in as little as years.

They need a story that doesn't change to prop up a worldview that very much doesn't work with reality, past or present.

This is how you get people insisting that Greece was inhabited by god-fearing christians 3,000 years ago. Or that everyone in the Roman Empire was straight. Or that Vikings were protestant.

They'd fall down dead if they knew how many of our ancestors had to be forced to convert to christianity, how many of them came from Africa and the middle East in the last few hundred years, or what they actually believed was moral and right.

It's a view of the past that doesn't stand up to even the most cursory scrutiny, which is why they're so defensive about it.

The idea of "western civilisation" as some sort of a homogenous monolith is definitely just a white supremacist dogwhistle, but the way these people talk about it makes it sound downright funny. This Unified White Culture that started in Ancient Greece and practices a religion that was born in the Southern Levant when a small doomsday cult escaped containment, and then there were vikings and shit and these are all just one unified People and Culture, despite of me having more mutual DNA with a neanderthal than a spaniard. Probably more mutual culture, too.

And then this spectacular glorious monolith empire is as fragile as a victorian orphan dying of tuberculosis. Must be protected from the slightest draft from any direction, at all costs, because unlike the cultures of countless diasporic peoples, the mighty Western Civilisation will die if it is not at least a 90% majority at all times. Every three minutes there's something new that is the harbinger of societal collapse, the beginning of the end, some sort of a slow-motion apocalypse caused by people saying stuff and doing things, and wearing clothes you don't like.

"Sure you're laughing now but where will you be when the barbarians are at the gates?" I'll be at the gates, obviously. The faggots are coming and we have a trebuchet.

[sierrawitch]

Dear Diary…

On Saturday I went to the grocery store to procure some tasties for a party with friends. As I pulled out of my parking space, I noticed a wind spirit swirling and playing with the leaves on the pavement.

I’ve reflected on that for three days, now. Not intensely, but it popped into mind periodically throughout my days. I wondered how it would be to feel as free as the wind, with no real responsibility but to blow some leaves across the ground, rustle the trees, and usher in a new season of crisp, chilled air.

I’ve always been particularly fond of earth spirits. They’re very grounding and calm, they can be stoic yet tender. I work with plants and herbs often in kitchen magick, herbal remedies, saining, etc, and have rarely felt the need to connect with the spirits of other elements. This is my mistake.

After witnessing the playing wind spirit, I’ve been more aware of the energies and personalities of other nature and elemental spirits around me.

Last night, for example, I was watching a film with a scented candle lit to help me relax after a long day. The flame flickered wildly, despite there being no draft to speak of. When my eyes wandered over to it, the dancing light stilled, and waved ever so slightly at the tip. Then, when I returned to watching the film, it wildly flickered again until it regained my attention. I watched it, and felt the sense that it was just a young thing wanting to be noticed and appreciated. Remembering that this candle was newly opened, I had no doubt that this little flame was something like a child.

The beauty of animism and spirit work is the realization that we are indeed connected to all things, living and non living (or at least non living by perception). Our existence as humans is preoccupied by essentially meaningless man-made design and obligatory schedule, to the point where we’ve become dissociated from this idea and consequently the natural world. Even on this journey of mine, I’m sucked into the hubbub of societal life. But it’s moments like these when I’m reminded of the truth: there is more to our world than what it seems, and there is more to explore and connect with than what we realize.

[thicc-astronaut]

I find Halloween really interesting from an anthropological perspective. It started with the Gaelic harvest festival of Samhain, which was held on November 1st, when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were said to be the thinnest. The ancient Celts would dress up in costumes, acting as the spirits of the dearly departed, and go from house to house, accepting food as offerings on the spirit's behalf.

This was something the ancient Celts were doing from the 9th century and it's survived, albeit in a heavily modified form devoid of its original context, until the modern day.

If there is an afterlife where our spirits go after we die, I wonder if those ancient Celts can see us from there. I like to think they would be happy that, even if their culture and religion had been largely wiped out by Romans and the Catholics, we're still celebrating their celebrations. That we're still dressing as something spooky and going house-to-house asking for food.

[castilestateofmind]

"The beliefs and practices of pagan origin that survived Christianity were those that the men of the first Church called "pagan", that is, typical of the inhabitants of the "pagi", of the peasants. It was more difficult for the higher mythological systems, the great theogonies, to remain alive. The belief in a numen of the fountains, of rivers, of forests, or caves (or a family cult) could survived more easily than the complex cults of the Greeks and Romans".

-Julio Caro Baroja.

[herboristecueilleuse]

Célébration de Samonios : Lien entre Deux Mondes

Samonios, entre deux mondes Samonios, chez les Celtes, jouxte deux mondes, deux années. Un moment privilégié où le monde humain communique avec le Sidh parce que ce temps n’appartient ni à l’année qui se termine, ni à celle qui commence. Samonios réunit tout ce qui a été vécu dans l’été tout en entrant dans le début de l’hiver. C’est la fête de la grande divinité souveraine sous ses aspects…

[selfiesforalgernon]

Read a book on the history of the Celts and a bit of their magic then had a dream that my weather app was set to stonehenge and it was 60° and rainy, I was wondering why tf the forecast was so cold and grey cause where I am it's going to get back into the 100s this week then saw the location it was set to.. woke up and added Salisbury, UK (which I guess is where it is) to my locations and sure enough it was 60 something and rainy... not that that's a huge leap it is the UK after all lol but damn it makes me whatever the opposite of homesick is, wanderlust I guess... or maybe genetically homesick.. I'm telling you right now if I ever visit Europe there is a very real non zero chance I refuse to come back even if it means I'm on the bum.. Eurasia/Africa landmass is OP all the countries are just there... no vast ocean seperating them halfway across the world.. (I know UK is island lol but I mean come on ykwim) Living in the US is so humiliating as a wannabe tramp lol what do you mean I hitch-hiked across the land for months and am still in the US 😢 T_T T_T T_T

[tweedsmuir-library]

Imbolc

Imbolc is celebrated February 1 to 2. The traditions of Imbolc reach back deep into the pagan history of the Celtic peoples of Ireland and its neighbours. With the Christianization of Ireland, Imbolc was replaced by St. Brigid’s Day . Imbolc as a cultural event has seen a resurgence in recent years, mainly in the neo-pagan community. Imbolc has also grown in popularity amongst others who desire…

[ancient-healer]

The day is stolen.

It is the pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. The rebirth of the Sun.

One of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.

Traditional customs such as the Yule log, the decorated tree, pomanders, mistletoe, and wassailing can all be traced back to pagan origins.

Those insisting the holiday cannot be rightly known as anything other than Christmas, are wrong. Humans have been celebrating the return of the Sun long before Christianity and Jesus Christ.

Many Christians aren't knowledgeable in the fact that most of their beloved Xmas traditions, are pagan in origin. Even Santa Claus and his 8 reindeer is an incarnation of the Norse god, Odin and his 8 legged horse Sleipnir.

The celebration of Xmas is simply the latest in a long line of mid-winter holidays celebrating the rebirth of a sacrificed deity.

“Just because that’s what you celebrate during Christmas doesn’t mean that’s how everyone celebrates—“

No. Either you celebrate Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God incarnate, being born of a virgin to live a sinless life and die our death in our place and rise again, or you don’t celebrate Christmas.

[lilaiamoreli]

(via Druidesses: The Celtic Women Behind the Veil (Part I))