Celtic Festivals

In this modern age of city living and science-ruled society, many of us have lost touch with the ebb and flow of the seasons and our place in the natural world. The Celtic festivals remind you of your closeness to nature and help you celebrate your connection with all living things, inspired by the turning of the seasons reflected on the changing face of the land. Some of these Celtic festivals are still honoured today – although often without recognising their true origins.

The most current Celtic festival is described below. This is for the Northern hemisphere as I live in Wales, UK but they’re reversed for the Southern hemisphere. For information on all the Celtic Festivals that make up the Wheel of the Year, scroll down the page.

Summer solstice – Summer quarter point, Sunday 21st June

This is the time of the longest day and the shortest night – midsummer, when the sun’s power is at its height. The Celts used to stay up all night to watch the dawn and celebrate this longest day before the days begin to shorten once again and we head back towards the dark side of the year. To the Celts, this was the point at which the full outward manifestation of the sun’s power became one with the burgeoning grain and the return to inner darkness – a joining of the active and receptive principles, male and female.

The wheel was an important symbol of this festival, but an active, turning wheel. Cartwheels wrapped in straw, called fate wheels, were set alight and rolled down the hillsides. How long and how well they burned was believed to indicate the abundance of the coming harvest. Giant effigies of the Corn Mother, the Green Man and the Dragon were made of willow, carried through the town and burnt on the midsummer fires – a symbolic act of ensuring their continuation by giving them fire.

Circular processions were held at night by torchlight on midsummer’s eve and during the day, all representing the turning of the wheel of the year, fate and the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth. This custom survives today in our carnival processions, where the floats have their origins in the ships that used to be wheeled through the towns to represent the burial mounds and long barrows – indicating a return to the dark inner world that begins on the longest day.

Folklore records that sacred herbs such as St John’s Wort were prayerfully gathered on St John’s Eve, cattle were blessed, wells were decorated with artistic arrangements of flowers. – documented as Christians traditions but harking back to much older rituals. In Irish myth and folklore, there’s reference to a faerie woman of the divine Tuatha de Danann or Sidhe, Aine, who transforms the land for good or ill. Perhaps she was once the Celtic goddess who stood at the centre of the Summer Solstice, and may even go back further than that. Gwilym at Celtic Source does some excellent mythological detective work around this in his series of Youtube videos.

This was a very important festival in the old calendar, and many of the ancient stone circles and monuments are aligned with the summer solstice sunrise. Two examples are Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey, and the enigmatic Seahenge in Norfolk.

Summer solstice energy

This is a time of completeness and abundance, for nature as well as for you, a time to celebrate all that you have achieved and manifested. The summer solstice invites you to celebrate your individuality and who you are, and to use your positive intent to look forward to all that you still want to become. As the sun’s energy comes to its peak, the active principle ripens all our outer achievements on the inner level too, bringing a transformation of spiritual strength and awareness. In this wholeness, you can recognise and celebrate the death and rebirth of the great cycle of the year.

How to celebrate

This is definitely a time for celebrating and entertaining in style with the whole community. Drama, dance and song are all essential elements to raise the energy, and give everyone a chance to display their own unique talents. Light a huge bonfire and have lots of fireworks – Catherine wheels are especially symbolic. If you can find a fire-eater, even better! Throw aromatic herbs onto the fire (traditionally fennel, lavender, geranium, rue, rosemary and chamomile) and dance through the smoke. The tug of war is traditionally played at this time – all the summer-born people on one side and the winter-borns on the other, to symbolise the battle between summer and winter. Close the evening’s activities with a ceremony of thanks, to the sun, moon, five elements, nature, spirit, ancestors and, of course, each other. Then you can bless the food and drink and tuck in!

With thanks to Glennie Kindred for her excellent source book Sacred Celebrations.

Celtic wheel of the year

There are eight Celtic festivals marking our cycle through the wheel of the year (the most current one is described at the top of this page):

Samhain – Autumn cross quarter festival, end of October/beginning of November

Winter solstice – Winter quarter point, 20 to 23 December

Imbolc – Winter cross quarter festival, 1st/2nd February

Spring equinox – Spring quarter point, 21 – 22 March

Beltane – Spring cross quarter festival, end of April/beginning of May

Summer solstice – Summer quarter point, 20 to 23 June

Lammas (Lughnasadh) – Summer cross quarter festival, end July/beginning August

Autumn equinox – Autumn quarter point, 20 – 23 September

Samhain – Autumn cross quarter festival, end of October/beginning of November