Celtic Festivals

Vernal or Spring Equinox will be communally celebrated on March 21st. Our Ancestors who were astute astronomers knew precisely the moment of equal daylight and darkness, the Equinox peak moment of balance. An Cónocht (Equinox in Irish-Gaelic) is a special cosmic event that we do well to celebrate consciously.  The shaman within will observe this magnificent natural synchronicity that […]

A time of transition and initiation, the Irish festival of Spring, Imbolg (or Imbolc) is both a gateway and a celebration. The word Imbolg translates from Gaelic as ‘in the belly’ mirrored by the swollen bellies of the pregnant ewes at this time. Féile Bhríde, the festival of Brigid, the great divine female archetype of Spring is

In our Celtic landscapes, the Winter Solstice is an ancient seasonal Festival – a rite of passage that is ageless. This stunning astronomical phenomenon marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year. The Sun, at its farthest southerly point, having moved slowly since last June, ‘stops’ for approximately 3 days before it starts to slowly meander

Samhain (pronounced “Sao-whin”) is regarded as the source of all eight Irish-Celtic seasonal festivals. Calculated as the “cross-quarter day” exactly half way between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, it heralds the Ancestral marking of the beginning of Winter, (the season of An Cailleach – Crone or Grandmother Earth).  The increasing darkness in the days from

For our ancestors, the Equinox provided a pause between autumn and winter. The word equinox derives from the Latin for “equal to night”. This phenomenon occurs twice a year and happens when the sun rises due east and sets due west and day and night are equal in length. Samhain which occurs November 7th and

“On a Saturday, my father Frank took my sister Alison and I to fields well known for mushrooms. When we got there, not a mushroom could be seen. With baskets and hearts empty, we started to make our way back to the car and along the route the hedgerows were bursting with blackberries. We picked

By Dr. Karen Ward For northern hemisphere dwellers, Summer Solstice – the longest day and the shortest night of our year is usually celebrated on 21st June. This year, the exact time of the cross-quarter moment between Bealtaine (early Summer) and Lughnasadh (early Autumn) is Saturday June 20th at 21.44pm GMT. In Gaelic, Solstice is Grianstad,

Summer Solstice, is known as “the longest day”, i.e. the one of maximum daylight in the year. As the Earth journeys around the Sun each year, daylight begins to increase soon after Winter Solstice and onwards to the peak of Summer Solstice. The natural world, which we humans are a part of, responds profoundly to growing quantities of light

Halfway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice is the cross quarter time of Bealtaine, the celestial announcement of the Summer season, even though temperatures may not yet tempt us to the beach . As the sun’s height and dominance in the dance between day and night increases from Spring Equinox to the climax at Summer Solstice,