The cycle of the Druids of Albion Year
Over the wide sweep of time, the celebration of seasonal festivals came to serve two distinct purposes. One was to foster the spiritual consciousness of the people and guide them in their journey through life towards the Higher Goal. The other was to assist and regulate the necessary mechanics of survival - hunting, planting and reaping in proper season. In the cradle of civilisation, the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East; these two aspects coincided well.
But in the broad band across central Europe, including the British Isles, that was home to the ancient Celts, the coincidence of the seasons with the Sun feasts was not such a good match. It became necessary to define a new set of Feasts to regulate the Pastoral year.
In Britain, the Vernal Equinox on the 21st March is, with the best will in the world, a long way from the balmy flower-filled Spring day that you expect to find in the southern lands. In warmer climes, this is the point at which crop-planting should be finished and celebrations held to mark the successful completion of the second great task of the pastoral year, the first being the preparation of the soil from Midwinter onwards.
But in the broad band across central Europe, including the British Isles, that was home to the ancient Celts, the coincidence of the seasons with the Sun feasts was not such a good match. It became necessary to define a new set of Feasts to regulate the Pastoral year.
In Britain, the Vernal Equinox on the 21st March is, with the best will in the world, a long way from the balmy flower-filled Spring day that you expect to find in the southern lands. In warmer climes, this is the point at which crop-planting should be finished and celebrations held to mark the successful completion of the second great task of the pastoral year, the first being the preparation of the soil from Midwinter onwards.
Here in the North, however, any seeds sown in the open before the Vernal Equinox are at severe risk from lack of sunlight, and frosts and snow that run on to the end of April. You may as well throw half of them away. In our harsher British climate, the sowing season has to be postponed for six weeks or thereabouts to guarantee any reasonable chance of success. Thus it starts at the Equinox, and must be completed by the time of a new Feast that falls roughly midway between the Sun Feasts of Spring Equinox and Midsummer. Originally marked by great celebrations in which giant bonfires figured prominently, this festival is still celebrated in a rather muted
form (and recently has sadly fallen prey to party politicking). We know it as May Day.
As our British winters are long, so our summers are short. We plant late and harvest early. The ancient Celts, under the guidance of their Druids, had to sow their seeds six weeks later than the Solar calendar suggested and reached the high point of their harvest six weeks early. Rather than celebrating the bounty of Nature at the Autumn Equinox in September, it became more appropriate to hold the Northern celebrations seven weeks earlier at the beginning of August, now know as Lammastide, the Feast of Loaves, because of the freshly harvested grain.
This movement of feasts created a fourth Season, the season of lying fallow. This is the time when the year is dying, when leaves fall, nothing grows, no fodder is to be found for the beasts, no seed sprouts, and crops that have not ripened rot on the vine. The start of this season was marked by a Feast that closed the year and falls roughly midway between the Solar markers of the September Equinox and Midwinter. Now known as Hallowe'en, the bonfires that always marked this Feast have an atavistic echo in the celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night.
The ice, snow and bitter frosts of the deep Northen winter made it impossible to prepare the ground for planting with rudimentary implements in December and January. So the time marked for preparing the soil to receive the seeds of the new planting was postponed from Midwinter to the beginning of February, the Feast of Candles, Candlemas.
The principal effect of this rearrangement of the seasonal markers was to separate the dual aspects of the original Feasts; the Spiritual aspect from the Pastoral. The Solar Feasts remain; whatever the plants and animals are doing, the Sun will always rise at just this point on Midsummer's Day and always set exactle due Weast on the Equinoxes.
As this is evidently part of the Great Plan manifest, the nature of the four Solar Feasts becomes predominantly spiritual and esoteric. On the other hand, the four markers of the pastoral year are critical for the survival of the community from year to year. They are essentially practical, but nonetheless contain a strong element of awe and wonder at how the mysteries of life, death and rebirth are writ large in the cycle of the seasons. The spiritual nature of these festivals is much more personal and introspective.
It is notable that at least three of the pastoral festivals have a fire focus. May Day and Hallowe'en feature bonfires and Candlemas emphasises the less considered aspect of fire: light. Lammas may also represent the 'tamed' fire of the hearth that bakes the loaves.In our modern electrical society, we forget that until recent years fire was struck as much for light as for heat. This highlights the distinction between the two sets of Feasts. The Solar Feasts now take the nature of celestial fire/light, representing the spiritual planes, while the pastoral festivals or, as I shall now call them, Fire Feasts, in their use of burning wood and candles, relate to corporeal fire and represent the material universe and all creatures that dwell in it.
The four pastoral markers of the ancient Druidic Year are still known to us in corruptions of their late Irish names: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lammas, or Lughnasad. Even after successive waves of invaders and proselytisers, the ancient and sacred Calendar of Britain was established too deeply to be entirely overlaid by the Romans, Saxons or Christians. Admittedly, Samhain could not be celebrated except under the guise of All Hallows, nor Imbolc except as Candlemas, but the pegs of the Sacred Calendar remained. Of the four-and-four Great Feasts, the names of the other four, much older, Sun Feasts of Midsummer (Litha), Midwinter (Yule) and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes (Ostar and Mabon), have not survived. Today we call them Alban Hefin, Alban Arthuan, Alban Eiler and Alban Elued.
See http://www.sacredfire.net/festivals.html
We now see a calendar of eight feasts, four of the Spirit and four of the Material World, alternating throughout the year like the interlocking teeth of two cogwheels. The cycle of the Druidic Year appears quite straightforward. It is generally agreed that the end of harvest feast of Samhain marked the turning of the year. In this context, 'harvest' does not mean the gathering of corn and first fruits which happens around August, but when the Earth is exhausted at the turning of November and has nothing more to offer, neither bounty for man nor fodder for beast. The next Celtic feast is not Midwinter but Imbolc. Midwinter is a much more ancient feast which, then as now, belongs to the ethos of Albion, the mystical personification of Britain, and seems to resonate with the rocks and very fabric of these Islands rather than the culture of the current dominant race. Chris Turner
The 'Wheel of the Year' graphic above by Geoff Boswell first appeared in the British Druid Order publication 'Druidry: Rekindling The Sacred Fire' by Philip Shallcrass and Emma Restall Orr, 2002.
Additionally, as we are a British Order we work alongside the predominant holiday or festival culture which nominally remains Christian.
form (and recently has sadly fallen prey to party politicking). We know it as May Day.
As our British winters are long, so our summers are short. We plant late and harvest early. The ancient Celts, under the guidance of their Druids, had to sow their seeds six weeks later than the Solar calendar suggested and reached the high point of their harvest six weeks early. Rather than celebrating the bounty of Nature at the Autumn Equinox in September, it became more appropriate to hold the Northern celebrations seven weeks earlier at the beginning of August, now know as Lammastide, the Feast of Loaves, because of the freshly harvested grain.
This movement of feasts created a fourth Season, the season of lying fallow. This is the time when the year is dying, when leaves fall, nothing grows, no fodder is to be found for the beasts, no seed sprouts, and crops that have not ripened rot on the vine. The start of this season was marked by a Feast that closed the year and falls roughly midway between the Solar markers of the September Equinox and Midwinter. Now known as Hallowe'en, the bonfires that always marked this Feast have an atavistic echo in the celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night.
The ice, snow and bitter frosts of the deep Northen winter made it impossible to prepare the ground for planting with rudimentary implements in December and January. So the time marked for preparing the soil to receive the seeds of the new planting was postponed from Midwinter to the beginning of February, the Feast of Candles, Candlemas.
The principal effect of this rearrangement of the seasonal markers was to separate the dual aspects of the original Feasts; the Spiritual aspect from the Pastoral. The Solar Feasts remain; whatever the plants and animals are doing, the Sun will always rise at just this point on Midsummer's Day and always set exactle due Weast on the Equinoxes.
As this is evidently part of the Great Plan manifest, the nature of the four Solar Feasts becomes predominantly spiritual and esoteric. On the other hand, the four markers of the pastoral year are critical for the survival of the community from year to year. They are essentially practical, but nonetheless contain a strong element of awe and wonder at how the mysteries of life, death and rebirth are writ large in the cycle of the seasons. The spiritual nature of these festivals is much more personal and introspective.
It is notable that at least three of the pastoral festivals have a fire focus. May Day and Hallowe'en feature bonfires and Candlemas emphasises the less considered aspect of fire: light. Lammas may also represent the 'tamed' fire of the hearth that bakes the loaves.In our modern electrical society, we forget that until recent years fire was struck as much for light as for heat. This highlights the distinction between the two sets of Feasts. The Solar Feasts now take the nature of celestial fire/light, representing the spiritual planes, while the pastoral festivals or, as I shall now call them, Fire Feasts, in their use of burning wood and candles, relate to corporeal fire and represent the material universe and all creatures that dwell in it.
The four pastoral markers of the ancient Druidic Year are still known to us in corruptions of their late Irish names: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lammas, or Lughnasad. Even after successive waves of invaders and proselytisers, the ancient and sacred Calendar of Britain was established too deeply to be entirely overlaid by the Romans, Saxons or Christians. Admittedly, Samhain could not be celebrated except under the guise of All Hallows, nor Imbolc except as Candlemas, but the pegs of the Sacred Calendar remained. Of the four-and-four Great Feasts, the names of the other four, much older, Sun Feasts of Midsummer (Litha), Midwinter (Yule) and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes (Ostar and Mabon), have not survived. Today we call them Alban Hefin, Alban Arthuan, Alban Eiler and Alban Elued.
See http://www.sacredfire.net/festivals.html
We now see a calendar of eight feasts, four of the Spirit and four of the Material World, alternating throughout the year like the interlocking teeth of two cogwheels. The cycle of the Druidic Year appears quite straightforward. It is generally agreed that the end of harvest feast of Samhain marked the turning of the year. In this context, 'harvest' does not mean the gathering of corn and first fruits which happens around August, but when the Earth is exhausted at the turning of November and has nothing more to offer, neither bounty for man nor fodder for beast. The next Celtic feast is not Midwinter but Imbolc. Midwinter is a much more ancient feast which, then as now, belongs to the ethos of Albion, the mystical personification of Britain, and seems to resonate with the rocks and very fabric of these Islands rather than the culture of the current dominant race. Chris Turner
The 'Wheel of the Year' graphic above by Geoff Boswell first appeared in the British Druid Order publication 'Druidry: Rekindling The Sacred Fire' by Philip Shallcrass and Emma Restall Orr, 2002.
Additionally, as we are a British Order we work alongside the predominant holiday or festival culture which nominally remains Christian.
Introduction to Christian festivals
Lent, Easter and Christmas are the main religious festivals of the Christian Year. Most people in Britain celebrate Christmas and Easter. School children have two weeks off school during Christmas and Easter.
The Christian Cycle
The Christian year is divided up with events which remind us of the life of Jesus. It begins with the season of Advent, at the very end of November, which is a period of preparation for the coming of Christ, and then moves through the story of his life to the important focus of Holy Week and Easter. After celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, the story focuses on the founding of the Church itself, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, before settling down for a period of teaching and consolidation of the faith during the weeks of Trinity.
Some festivals, like Christmas Day, happen on the same date every year, while others move around within a range of dates.
Why are some the festivals not on the same day each year?
The reason is because the Christian Calendar grew out of two other Calendars, the Jewish and the Roman. In their distant past, the Jews were a nomadic (wandering) people. As they often travelled at night, the moon was of great importance to them, and they based their calendar on its phases. The first great Christian festivals sprang from Jewish ones.
The Christian Church grew and expanded under the Roman Empire which followed a calendar controlled by the sun. When the church began to introduce festivals of its very own, not based on the Jews, they fixed them on dates already in the Roman calendar. The Christian Calendar is thus a dual one, with 'fixed' feats based on the Roman 'solar' calendar, and 'moveable' ones based on the Jewish 'lunar' calendar.
Lent, Easter and Christmas are the main religious festivals of the Christian Year. Most people in Britain celebrate Christmas and Easter. School children have two weeks off school during Christmas and Easter.
The Christian Cycle
The Christian year is divided up with events which remind us of the life of Jesus. It begins with the season of Advent, at the very end of November, which is a period of preparation for the coming of Christ, and then moves through the story of his life to the important focus of Holy Week and Easter. After celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, the story focuses on the founding of the Church itself, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, before settling down for a period of teaching and consolidation of the faith during the weeks of Trinity.
Some festivals, like Christmas Day, happen on the same date every year, while others move around within a range of dates.
Why are some the festivals not on the same day each year?
The reason is because the Christian Calendar grew out of two other Calendars, the Jewish and the Roman. In their distant past, the Jews were a nomadic (wandering) people. As they often travelled at night, the moon was of great importance to them, and they based their calendar on its phases. The first great Christian festivals sprang from Jewish ones.
The Christian Church grew and expanded under the Roman Empire which followed a calendar controlled by the sun. When the church began to introduce festivals of its very own, not based on the Jews, they fixed them on dates already in the Roman calendar. The Christian Calendar is thus a dual one, with 'fixed' feats based on the Roman 'solar' calendar, and 'moveable' ones based on the Jewish 'lunar' calendar.