Product Description
While all eight of these Celtic holidays may not be truly ancient, several of them certainly are; some, like Samhain, have had Christianizing veils cast over them but have kept many of the pre-Christian customs associated with their celebration. Interested harpists will find a wealth of available information about these holidays, their names, and their customs.
Imbolc, February 1st or 2nd, is also the Feast of St. Bridget or Brigid and is associated with the ancient goddess of that name in Celtic mythology.
Ostara is the name sometimes given to the neo-Celtic celebration of the Spring Equinox. This piece depicts the dawn of the day and of the year.
Beltaine, the joyous celebration of springs warmth and wealth of flowers and new greenery, occurs on the first day of May.
The longest day of the year and the shortest night mark the Summer Solstice-Midsummer. Since long before Shakespeares funny and lyrical play A Midsummer Nights Dream, the Summer Solstice has been associated with magic.
Lughnasadh, on August 1st, is the festival of the first harvest. A version of the name of this festival survives in Manx and Scots Gaelic as well as in Irish Gaelic, and the name itself derives from Lugh, one of the most important Celtic gods
Mabon marks the Autumn Equinox and the end of summer; for me, it is a wistful moment of the year-extremely beautiful yet transitory.
Samhain is one of the most significant celebrations in the Celtic year- the word itself means "the end of summer", the beginning of the dark part of the year. It survives even in non-Celtic countries as Halloween, thanks to its adoption into the Christian calendar as All Hallows Eve. It is said to be the time when the veils between this world and the next are at their most thin.
The Winter Solstice is marked in many European cultures as a time for celebrating the birth of the new light and a time for decorating with evergreens like holly. For "The Holly King," modal and traditional versions of the carol "The Holly and the Ivy," were used because of the lyrics references to "the rising of the sun, and the running of the deer."
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