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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture >From: "Ms Brenda M. Cook" <[log in to unmask]> >Just a thought - Celtic Experts and New Agers - since we have 3 very dodgy >female saints commemorated today, could this be a feast day of a pagan >goddess by any chance ? Just an unorthodox thought .... I'm not a "New Ager" so I guess I must be a "Celtic expert." ;) There's no evidence that Celtic deities had feast days in the way that Roman (non-Christian) figures or Catholic saints do (the Romans added one Gaulish goddess, Epona, to their calendar, but she's an exception). The Celtic system is quite different from the Greco-Roman. Celtic deities, like Breton saints, were very local in focus and cult. Several hundred names or titles for Celtic deities have been identified from inscriptions and literary sources. Only a handful are repeated more than once. Generally, they weren't patrons of functions or concerns; rather, they were patrons of tribes or kin-groups. The Celtic feasts were linked to the agricultural (crops and herding) cycles, not the sun. There's a bit of evidence for pre-Roman calendars (brass plates were found at Coligny in the 1800s, and the plates seem to be a Celtic calendar). There were myths associated with the feasts, but they were not feasts of goddesses or gods, as a rule. (1 February has become so identified with Bridget in the Christian era that it's difficult to tell what was happening in the pre-Christian period, but it seems that the saint absorbed the cult of many goddesses, not just one. The focus of the feast would have been the patroness of the tribe, frequently thought to be the ancestress, not necessarily a goddess called Bri/d.) The Celtic feasts in the modern calendar are: 1 November--beginning of winter, new year, pay rents, cull herds, smoke meats for winter, end harvest, return family members from summer pastures, return dead from Otherworld (temporarily) 1 February--beginning of spring, sowing (at least symbolic), lambing 1 May--beginning of winter, move herds to upper pastures, certain family members stay with herds, harvest wild greens 1 August--beginning of fall; start harvest, offer first fruits; regional fairs, races, and games; arrange marriages Prior to the use of modern calendars, feasts were calculated by position of the moon/stars or when an event (crops ripen, a certain tree blossoms) occurred. Ma/ire Mac Neill suggests that beginning of harvest festivals lasted 2 weeks or could take place any time over a period 2 weeks prior to or 2 weeks after the "target" date. So I tend to think of any saint's feast between mid-July and mid-August as a possible replacement for the first fruits festival. At other times on this list, I've mentioned Daniel Melia's article on the correspondences between the Trome/nie processions at Loronan (Bretagne) and the pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick (Ireland), both of which have been suggested as remnants of Celtic first fruits festivals. However, there's no reason to think of any of them as replacing a Celtic pagan goddess feast because there wasn't such a thing. Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html