FESTIVALS.
The Celtic year was not at first regulated by the solstices and
equinoxes, but by some method connected with agriculture or with the
seasons. Later, the year was a lunar one, and there is some evidence of
attempts at synchronising solar and lunar time. But time was mainly
measured by the moon, while in all calculations night preceded day.[889]
Thus _oidhche Samhain_ was the night preceding Samhain (November 1st),
not the following night. The usage survives in our "sennight" and
"fortnight." In early times the year had two, possibly three divisions,
marking periods in pastoral or agricultural life, but it was afterwards
divided into four periods, while the year began with the winter
division, opening at Samhain. A twofold, subdivided into a fourfold
division is found in Irish texts,[890] and may be tabulated as
follows:--
1st quarter, _Geimredh_, beginning with the
_A_. Geimredh festival of _Samhain_, November 1st.
(winter half)
2nd quarter, _Earrach_, beginning February
1st (sometimes called _Oimelc_).
3rd quarter, _Samradh_, beginning with the
_B_. Samhradh festival of _Beltane_, May 1st (called also
(summer half) _Cét-soman_ or _Cét-samain_, 1st day of
_Samono-s_; cf. Welsh _Cyntefyn_).
4th quarter, _Foghamhar_, beginning with
the festival of _Lugnasadh_, August 1st
(sometimes called _Brontroghain_).
These divisions began with festivals, and clear traces of three of them
occur over the whole Celtic area, but the fourth has now been merged in
S. Brigit's day. Beltane and Samhain marked the beginning of the two
great divisions, and were perhaps at first movable festivals, according
as the signs of summer or winter appeared earlier or later. With the
adoption of the Roman calendar some of the festivals were displaced,
e.g. in Gaul, where the Calends of January took the place of Samhain,
the ritual being also transferred.
None of the four festivals is connected with the times of equinox and
solstice. This points to the fact that originally the Celtic year was
independent of these. But Midsummer day was also observed not only by
the Celts, but by most European folk, the ritual resembling that of
Beltane. It has been held, and an old tradition in Ireland gives some
support to the theory, that under Christian influences the old pagan
feast of Beltane was merged in that of S. John Baptist on Midsummer
day.[891] But, though there are Christian elements in the Midsummer
ritual, denoting a desire to bring it under Church influence, the pagan
elements in folk-custom are strongly marked, and the festival is deeply
rooted in an earlier paganism all over Europe. Without much acquaintance
with astronomy, men must have noted the period of the sun's longest
course from early times, and it would probably be observed ritually. The
festivals of Beltane and Midsummer may have arisen independently, and
entered into competition with each other. Or Beltane may have been an
early pastoral festival marking the beginning of summer when the herds
went out to pasture, and Midsummer a more purely agricultural festival.
And since their ritual aspect and purpose as seen in folk-custom are
similar, they may eventually have borrowed each from the other. Or they
may be later separate fixed dates of an earlier movable summer festival.
For our purpose we may here consider them as twin halves of such a
festival. Where Midsummer was already observed, the influence of the
Roman calendar would confirm that observance. The festivals of the
Christian year also affected the older observances. Some of the ritual
was transferred to saints' days within the range of the pagan festival
days, thus the Samhain ritual is found observed on S. Martin's day. In
other cases, holy days took the place of the old festivals--All Saints'
and All Souls' that of Samhain, S. Brigit's day that of February 1st, S.
John Baptist's day that of Midsummer, Lammas that of Lugnasad, and some
attempt was made to hallow, if not to oust, the older ritual.
The Celtic festivals being primarily connected with agricultural and
pastoral life, we find in their ritual survivals traces not only of a
religious but of a magical view of things, of acts designed to assist
the powers of life and growth. The proof of this will be found in a
detailed examination of the surviving customs connected with them.
SAMHAIN.
Samhain,[892] beginning the Celtic year, was an important social and
religious occasion. The powers of blight were beginning their
ascendancy, yet the future triumph of the powers of growth was not
forgotten. Probably Samhain had gathered up into itself other feasts
occurring earlier or later. Thus it bears traces of being a harvest
festival, the ritual of the earlier harvest feast being transferred to
the winter feast, as the Celts found themselves in lands where harvest
is not gathered before late autumn. The harvest rites may, however, have
been associated with threshing rather than ingathering. Samhain also
contains in its ritual some of the old pastoral cults, while as a New
Year feast its ritual is in great part that of all festivals of
beginnings.
New fire was brought into each house at Samhain from the sacred
bonfire,[893] itself probably kindled from the need-fire by the friction
of pieces of wood. This preserved its purity, the purity necessary to a
festival of beginnings.[894] The putting away of the old fires was
probably connected with various rites for the expulsion of evils, which
usually occur among many peoples at the New Year festival. By that
process of dislocation which scattered the Samhain ritual over a wider
period and gave some of it to Christmas, the kindling of the Yule log
may have been originally connected with this festival.
Divination and forecasting the fate of the inquirer for the coming year
also took place. Sometimes these were connected with the bonfire, stones
placed in it showing by their appearance the fortune or misfortune
awaiting their owners.[895] Others, like those described by Burns in his
"Hallowe'en," were unconnected with the bonfire and were of an erotic
nature.[896]
The slaughter of animals for winter consumption which took place at
Samhain, or, as now, at Martinmas, though connected with economic
reasons, had a distinctly religious aspect, as it had among the Teutons.
In recent times in Ireland one of the animals was offered to S. Martin,
who may have taken the place of a god, and ill-luck followed the
non-observance of the custom.[897] The slaughter was followed by general
feasting. This later slaughter may be traced back to the pastoral stage,
in which the animals were regarded as divine, and one was slain annually
and eaten sacramentally. Or, if the slaughter was more general, the
animals would be propitiated. But when the animals ceased to be
worshipped, the slaughter would certainly be more general, though still
preserving traces of its original character. The pastoral sacrament may
also have been connected with the slaying and eating of an animal
representing the corn-spirit at harvest time. In one legend S. Martin is
associated with the animal slain at Martinmas, and is said to have been
cut up and eaten in the form of an ox,[898] as if a former divine animal
had become an anthropomorphic divinity, the latter being merged in the
personality of a Christian saint.
Other rites, connected with the Calends of January as a result of
dislocation, point also in this direction. In Gaul and Germany riotous
processions took place with men dressed in the heads and skins of
animals.[899] This rite is said by Tille to have been introduced from
Italy, but it is more likely to have been a native custom.[900] As the
people ate the flesh of the slain animals sacramentally, so they clothed
themselves in the skins to promote further contact with their divinity.
Perambulating the township sunwise dressed in the skin of a cow took
place until recently in the Hebrides at New Year, in order to keep off
misfortune, a piece of the hide being burned and the smoke inhaled by
each person and animal in the township.[901] Similar customs have been
found in other Celtic districts, and these animal disguises can hardly
be separated from the sacramental slaughter at Samhain.[902]
Evils having been or being about to be cast off in the New Year ritual,
a few more added to the number can make little difference. Hence among
primitive peoples New Year is often characterised by orgiastic rites.
These took place at the Calends in Gaul, and were denounced by councils
and preachers.[903] In Ireland the merriment at Samhain is often
mentioned in the texts,[904] and similar orgiastic rites lurk behind the
Hallowe'en customs in Scotland and in the licence still permitted to
youths in the quietest townships of the West Highlands at Samhain eve.
Samhain, as has been seen, was also a festival of the dead, whose ghosts
were fed at this time.[905]
As the powers of growth were in danger and in eclipse in winter, men
thought it necessary to assist them. As a magical aid the Samhain
bonfire was chief, and it is still lit in the Highlands. Brands were
carried round, and from it the new fire was lit in each house. In North
Wales people jumped through the fire, and when it was extinct, rushed
away to escape the "black sow" who would take the hindmost.[906] The
bonfire represented the sun, and was intended to strengthen it. But
representing the sun, it had all the sun's force, hence those who jumped
through it were strengthened and purified. The Welsh reference to the
hindmost and to the black sow may point to a former human sacrifice,
perhaps of any one who stumbled in jumping through the fire. Keating
speaks of a Druidic sacrifice in the bonfire, whether of man or beast is
not specified.[907] Probably the victim, like the scapegoat, was laden
with the accumulated evils of the year, as in similar New Year customs
elsewhere. Later belief regarded the sacrifice, if sacrifice there was,
as offered to the powers of evil--the black sow, unless this animal is a
reminiscence of the corn-spirit in its harmful aspect. Earlier powers,
whether of growth or of blight, came to be associated with Samhain as
demoniac beings--the "malignant bird flocks" which blighted crops and
killed animals, the _samhanach_ which steals children, and Mongfind the
banshee, to whom "women and the rabble" make petitions on Samhain
eve.[908] Witches, evil-intentioned fairies, and the dead were
particularly active then.
Though the sacrificial victim had come to be regarded as an offering to
the powers of blight, he may once have represented a divinity of growth
or, in earlier times, the corn-spirit. Such a victim was slain at
harvest, and harvest is often late in northern Celtic regions, while the
slaying was sometimes connected not with the harvest field, but with the
later threshing. This would bring it near the Samhain festival. The
slaying of the corn-spirit was derived from the earlier slaying of a
tree or vegetation-spirit embodied in a tree and also in a human or
animal victim. The corn-spirit was embodied in the last sheaf cut as
well as in an animal or human being.[909] This human victim may have
been regarded as a king, since in late popular custom a mock king is
chosen at winter festivals.[910] In other cases the effigy of a saint is
hung up and carried round the different houses, part of the dress being
left at each. The saint has probably succeeded to the traditional ritual
of the divine victim.[911] The primitive period in which the corn-spirit
was regarded as female, with a woman as her human representative, is
also recalled in folk-custom. The last sheaf is called the Maiden or the
Mother, while, as in Northamptonshire, girls choose a queen on S.
Catharine's day, November 26th, and in some Christmas pageants "Yule's
wife," as well as Yule, is present, corresponding to the May queen of
the summer festival.[912] Men also masqueraded as women at the Calends.
The dates of these survivals may be explained by that dislocation of the
Samhain festival already pointed out. This view of the Samhain human
sacrifices is supported by the Irish offerings to the Fomorians--gods of
growth, later regarded as gods of blight, and to Cromm Cruaich, in both
cases at Samhain.[913] With the evolution of religious thought, the
slain victim came to be regarded as an offering to evil powers.
This aspect of Samhain, as a festival to promote and assist festivity,
is further seen in the belief in the increased activity of fairies at
that time. In Ireland, fairies are connected with the Tuatha Dé Danann,
the divinities of growth, and in many folk-tales they are associated
with agricultural processes. The use of evergreens at Christmas is
perhaps also connected with the carrying of them round the fields in
older times, as an evidence that the life of nature was not
extinct.[914]
Samhain may thus be regarded as, in origin, an old pastoral and
agricultural festival, which in time came to be looked upon as affording
assistance to the powers of growth in their conflict with the powers of
blight. Perhaps some myth describing this combat may lurk behind the
story of the battle of Mag-tured fought on Samhain between the Tuatha Dé
Danann and the Fomorians. While the powers of blight are triumphant in
winter, the Tuatha Déa are represented as the victors, though they
suffer loss and death. Perhaps this enshrines the belief in the
continual triumph of life and growth over blight and decay, or it may
arise from the fact that Samhain was both a time of rejoicing for the
ingathered harvest, and of wailing for the coming supremacy of winter
and the reign of the powers of blight.
BELTANE.
In Cormac's _Glossary_ and other texts, "Beltane" is derived from
_bel-tene_, "a goodly fire," or from _bel-dine_, because newly-born
(_dine_) cattle were offered to Bel, an idol-god.[915] The latter is
followed by those who believe in a Celtic Belus, connected with Baal. No
such god is known, however, and the god Belenos is in no way connected
with the Semitic divinity. M. D'Arbois assumes an unknown god of death,
Beltene (from _beltu_, "to die"), whose festival Beltane was.[916] But
Beltane was a festival of life, of the sun shining in his strength. Dr.
Stokes gives a more acceptable explanation of the word. Its primitive
form was _belo-te_[_p_]_niâ_, from _belo-s_, "clear," "shining," the
root of the names Belenos and Belisama, and _te_[_p_]_nos_, "fire." Thus
the word would mean something like "bright fire," perhaps the sun or the
bonfire, or both.[917]
The folk-survivals of the Beltane and Midsummer festivals show that both
were intended to promote fertility.
One of the chief ritual acts at Beltane was the kindling of bonfires,
often on hills. The house-fires in the district were often extinguished,
the bonfire being lit by friction from a rotating wheel--the German
"need-fire."[918] The fire kept off disease and evil, hence cattle were
driven through it, or, according to Cormac, between two fires lit by
Druids, in order to keep them in health during the year.[919] Sometimes
the fire was lit beneath a sacred tree, or a pole covered with greenery
was surrounded by the fuel, or a tree was burned in the fire.[920] These
trees survive in the Maypole of later custom, and they represented the
vegetation-spirit, to whom also the worshippers assimilated themselves
by dressing in leaves. They danced sunwise round the fire or ran through
the fields with blazing branches or wisps of straw, imitating the course
of the sun, and thus benefiting the fields.[921] For the same reason the
tree itself was probably borne through the fields. Houses were decked
with boughs and thus protected by the spirit of vegetation.[922]
An animal representing the spirit of vegetation may have been slain. In
late survivals of Beltane at Dublin, a horse's skull and bones were
thrown into the fire,[923] the attenuated form of an earlier sacrifice
or slaying of a divine victim, by whom strength was transferred to all
the animals which passed through the fire. In some cases a human victim
may have been slain. This is suggested by customs surviving in
Perthshire in the eighteenth century, when a cake was broken up and
distributed, and the person who received a certain blackened portion was
called the "Beltane carline" or "devoted." A pretence was made of
throwing him into the fire, or he had to leap three times through it,
and during the festival he was spoken of as "dead."[924] Martin says
that malefactors were burned in the fire,[925] and though he cites no
authority, this agrees with the Celtic use of criminals as victims.
Perhaps the victim was at one time a human representative of the
vegetation-spirit.
Beltane cakes or bannocks, perhaps made of the grain of the sacred last
sheaf from the previous harvest, and therefore sacramental in character,
were also used in different ways in folk-survivals. They were rolled
down a slope--a magical imitative act, symbolising and aiding the course
of the sun. The cake had also a divinatory character. If it broke on
reaching the foot of the slope this indicated the approaching death of
its owner. In another custom in Perthshire, part of a cake was thrown
over the shoulder with the words, "This I give to thee, preserve thou my
horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; this to thee, O fox,
preserve thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow; this to thee, O
eagle." Here there is an appeal to beneficial and noxious powers,
whether this was the original intention of the rite.[926] But if the
cakes were made of the last sheaf, they were probably at one time eaten
sacramentally, their sacrificial use emerging later.
The bonfire was a sun-charm, representing and assisting the sun.
Rain-charms were also used at Beltane. Sacred wells were visited and the
ceremony performed with their waters, these perhaps being sprinkled over
the tree or the fields to promote a copious rainfall for the benefit of
vegetation. The use of such rites at Beltane and at other festivals may
have given rise to the belief that wells were especially efficacious
then for purposes of healing. The custom of rolling in the grass to
benefit by May dew was probably connected with magical rites in which
moisture played an important part.[927]
The idea that the powers of growth had successfully combated those of
blight may have been ritually represented. This is suggested by the
mimic combats of Summer and Winter at this time, to which reference has
already been made. Again, the May king and queen represent earlier
personages who were regarded as embodying the spirits of vegetation and
fertility at this festival, and whose marriage or union magically
assisted growth and fertility, as in numerous examples of this ritual
marriage elsewhere.[928] It may be assumed that a considerable amount of
sexual licence also took place with the same magical purpose. Sacred
marriage and festival orgy were an appeal to the forces of nature to
complete their beneficial work, as well as a magical aid to them in that
work. Analogy leads to the supposition that the king of the May was
originally a priest-king, the incarnation of the spirit of vegetation.
He or his surrogate was slain, while his bodily force was unabated, in
order that it might be passed on undiminished to his successor. But the
persistent place given to the May queen rather than to the king suggests
the earlier prominence of women and of female spirits of fertility or of
a great Mother-goddess in such rites. It is also significant that in the
Perthshire ritual the man chosen was still called the _Beltane carlane_
or _cailleach_ ("old woman"). And if, as Professor Pearson maintains,
witch orgies are survivals of old sex-festivals, then the popular belief
in the activity of witches on Beltane eve, also shows that the festival
had once been mainly one in which women took part. Such orgies often
took place on hills which had been the sites of a cult in former
times.[929]
MIDSUMMER.
The ritual of the Midsummer festival did not materially differ from that
of Beltane, and as folk-survivals show, it was practised not only by the
Celts, but by many other European peoples. It was, in fact, a primitive
nature festival such as would readily be observed by all under similar
psychic conditions and in like surroundings. A bonfire was again the
central rite of this festival, the communal nature of which is seen in
the fact that all must contribute materials to it. In local survivals,
mayor and priest, representing the earlier local chief and priest, were
present, while a service in church preceded the procession to the scene
of the bonfire. Dancing sunwise round the fire to the accompaniment of
songs which probably took the place of hymns or tunes in honour of the
Sun-god, commonly occurred, and by imitating the sun's action, may have
been intended to make it more powerful. The livelier the dance the
better would be the harvest.[930] As the fire represented the sun, it
possessed the purifying and invigorating powers of the sun; hence
leaping through the fire preserved from disease, brought prosperity, or
removed barrenness. Hence also cattle were driven through the fire. But
if any one stumbled as he leaped, ill-luck was supposed to follow him.
He was devoted to the _fadets_ or spirits,[931] and perhaps, like the
"devoted" Beltane victim, he may formerly have been sacrificed. Animal
sacrifices are certainly found in many survivals, the victims being
often placed in osier baskets and thrown into the fire. In other
districts great human effigies of osier were carried in procession and
burned.[932]
The connection of such sacrifices with the periodical slaying of a
representative of the vegetation-spirit has been maintained by Mannhardt
and Dr. Frazer.[933] As has been seen, periodic sacrifices for the
fertility of the land are mentioned by Cæsar, Strabo, and Diodorus,
human victims and animals being enclosed in an osier image and
burned.[934] These images survive in the osier effigies just referred
to, while they may also be connected with the custom of decking the
human representatives of the spirit of vegetation in greenery. The
holocausts may be regarded as extensions of the earlier custom of
slaying one victim, the incarnation of a vegetation-spirit. This slaying
was gradually regarded as sacrificial, but as the beneficial effect of
the sacrifice on growth was still believed in, it would naturally be
thought that still better effects would be produced if many victims were
offered. The victims were burned in a fire representing the sun, and
vegetation was thus doubly benefited, by the victims and by the sun-god.
The oldest conception of the vegetation-spirit was that of a tree-spirit
which had power over rain, sunshine, and every species of fruitfulness.
For this reason a tree had a prominent place both in the Beltane and
Midsummer feasts. It was carried in procession, imparting its benefits
to each house or field. Branches of it were attached to each house for
the same purpose. It was then burned, or it was set up to procure
benefits to vegetation during the year and burned at the next Midsummer
festival.[935] The sacred tree was probably an oak, and, as has been
seen, the mistletoe rite probably took place on Midsummer eve, as a
preliminary to cutting down the sacred tree and in order to secure the
life or soul of the tree, which must first be secured before the tree
could be cut down. The life of the tree was in the mistletoe, still
alive in winter when the tree itself seemed to be dead. Such beliefs as
this concerning the detachable soul or life survive in _Märchen_, and
are still alive among savages.[936]
Folk-survivals show that a human or an animal representative of the
vegetation-spirit, brought into connection with the tree, was also slain
or burned along with the tree.[937] Thus the cutting of the mistletoe
would be regarded as a preliminary to the slaying of the human victim,
who, like the tree, was the representative of the spirit of vegetation.
The bonfire representing the sun, and the victims, like the tree,
representing the spirit of vegetation, it is obvious why the fire had
healing and fertilising powers, and why its ashes and the ashes or the
flesh of the victims possessed the same powers. Brands from the fire
were carried through the fields or villages, as the tree had been, or
placed on the fields or in houses, where they were carefully preserved
for a year. All this aided growth and prosperity, just as the smoke of
the fire, drifting over the fields, produced fertility. Ashes from the
fire, and probably the calcined bones or even the flesh of the victims,
were scattered on the fields or preserved and mixed with the seed corn.
Again, part of the flesh may have been eaten sacramentally, since, as
has been seen, Pliny refers to the belief of the Celts in the eating of
human flesh as most wholesome.
In the Stone Age, as with many savages, a circle typified the sun, and
as soon as the wheel was invented its rolling motion at once suggested
that of the sun. In the _Edda_ the sun is "the beautiful, the shining
wheel," and similar expressions occur in the _Vedas_. Among the Celts
the wheel of the sun was a favourite piece of symbolism, and this is
seen in various customs at the Midsummer festival. A burning wheel was
rolled down a slope or trundled through the fields, or burning brands
were whirled round so as to give the impression of a fiery wheel. The
intention was primarily to imitate the course of the sun through the
heavens, and so, on the principle of imitative magic, to strengthen it.
But also, as the wheel was rolled through the fields, so it was hoped
that the direct beneficial action of the sun upon them would follow.
Similar rites might be performed not only at Midsummer, but at other
times, to procure blessing or to ward off evil, e.g. carrying fire round
houses or fields or cattle or round a child _deiseil_ or sunwise,[938]
and, by a further extension of thought, the blazing wheel, or the
remains of the burning brands thrown to the winds, had also the effect
of carrying off accumulated evils.[939]
Beltane and Midsummer thus appear as twin halves of a spring or early
summer festival, the intention of which was to promote fertility and
health. This was done by slaying the spirit of vegetation in his
representative--tree, animal, or man. His death quickened the energies
of earth and man. The fire also magically assisted the course of the
sun. Survival of the ancient rites are or were recently found in all
Celtic regions, and have been constantly combated by the Church. But
though they were continued, their true meaning was forgotten, and they
were mainly performed for luck or out of sheer conservatism. Sometimes a
Christian aspect was given to them, e.g. by connecting the fires with S.
John, or by associating the rites with the service of the Church, or by
the clergy being present at them. But their true nature was still
evident as acts of pagan worship and magic which no veneer of
Christianity could ever quite conceal.[940]
LUGNASAD.
The 1st of August, coming midway between Beltane and Samhain, was an
important festival among the Celts. In Christian times the day became
Lammas, but its name still survives in Irish as Lugnasad, in Gaelic as
Lunasdal or Lunasduinn, and in Manx as Laa Luanys, and it is still
observed as a fair or feast in many districts. Formerly assemblies at
convenient centres were held on this day, not only for religious
purposes, but for commerce and pleasure, both of these being of course
saturated with religion. "All Ireland" met at Taillti, just as "all
Gaul" met at Lugudunum, "Lug's town," or Lyons, in honour of Augustus,
though the feast there had formerly been in honour of the god
Lugus.[941] The festival was here Romanised, as it was also in Britain,
where its name appears as _Goel-aoust_, _Gul-austus_, and _Gwyl Awst_,
now the "August feast," but formerly the "feast of Augustus," the name
having replaced one corresponding to Lugnasad.[942]
Cormac explains the name Lugnasad as a festival of Lugh mac Ethlenn,
celebrated by him in the beginning of autumn, and the _Rennes
Dindsenchas_ accounts for its origin by saying that Lug's foster-mother,
Tailtiu, having died on the Calends of August, he directed an assembly
for lamentation to be held annually on that day at her tomb.[943] Lug is
thus the founder of his own festival, for that it was his, and not
Tailtiu's, is clear from the fact that his name is attached to it. As
Lammas was a Christian harvest thanksgiving, so also was Lugnasad a
pagan harvest feast, part of the ritual of which passed over to Samhain.
The people made glad before the sun-god--Lug perhaps having that
character--who had assisted them in the growth of the things on which
their lives depended. Marriages were also arranged at this feast,
probably because men had now more leisure and more means for entering
upon matrimony. Possibly promiscuous love-making also occurred as a
result of the festival gladness, agricultural districts being still
notoriously immoral. Some evidence points to the connection of the feast
with Lug's marriage, though this has been allegorised into his wedding
the "sovereignty of Erin." Perhaps we have here a hint of the rite of
the sacred marriage, for the purpose of magically fertilising the fields
against next year's sowing.
Due observance of the feast produced abundance of corn, fruit, milk, and
fish. Probably the ritual observed included the preservation of the last
sheaf as representing the corn-spirit, giving some of it to the cattle
to strengthen them, and mingling it with next year's corn to impart to
it the power of the corn-spirit. It may also have included the slaying
of an animal or human incarnation of the corn-spirit, whose flesh and
blood quickened the soil and so produced abundance next year, or, when
partaken of by the worshippers, brought blessings to them. To neglect
such rites, abundant instances of which exist in folk-custom, would be
held to result in scarcity. This would also explain, as already
suggested, why the festival was associated with the death of Tailtiu or
of Carman. The euhemerised queen-goddess Tailtiu and the woman Carman
had once been corn-goddesses, evolved from more primitive corn-spirits,
and slain at the feast in their female representatives. The story of
their death and burial at the festival was a dim memory of this ancient
rite, and since the festival was also connected with the sun-god Lug, it
was easy to bring him into relationship with the earlier goddess.
Elsewhere the festival, in its memorial aspect, was associated with a
king, probably because male victims had come to be representatives of a
corn-god who had taken the place of the goddess.
* * * * *
Some of the ritual of these festivals is illustrated by scattered
notices in classical writers, and on the whole they support our theory
that the festivals originated in a female cult of spirits or goddesses
of fertility. Strabo speaks of sacrifices offered to Demeter and Kore,
according to the ritual followed at Samothrace, in an island near
Britain, i.e. to native goddesses equated with them. He also describes
the ritual of the Namnite women on an island in the Loire. They are
called Bacchantes because they conciliated Bacchus with mysteries and
sacrifices; in other words, they observed an orgiastic cult of a god
equated with Bacchus. No man must set foot on the island, but the women
left it once a year for intercourse with the other sex. Once a year the
temple of the god was unroofed, and roofed again before sunset. If any
woman dropped her load of materials (and it was said this always
happened), she was torn in pieces and her limbs carried round the
temple.[944] Dionysius Periegetes says the women were crowned with ivy,
and celebrated their mysteries by night in honour of Earth and
Proserpine with great clamour.[945] Pliny also makes a reference to
British rites in which nude women and girls took part, their bodies
stained with woad.[946]
At a later time, S. Gregory of Tours speaks of the image of a goddess
Berecynthia drawn on a litter through the streets, fields, and vineyards
of Augustodunum on the days of her festival, or when the fields were
threatened with scarcity. The people danced and sang before it. The
image was covered with a white veil.[947] Berecynthia has been
conjectured by Professor Anwyl to be the goddess Brigindu, worshipped at
Valnay.[948]
These rites were all directed towards divinities of fertility. But in
harvest customs in Celtic Scotland and elsewhere two sheaves of corn
were called respectively the Old Woman and the Maiden, the corn-spirit
of the past year and that of the year to come, and corresponding to
Demeter and Kore in early Greek agricultural ritual. As in Greece, so
among the Celts, the primitive corn-spirits had probably become more
individualised goddesses with an elaborate cult, observed on an island
or at other sacred spots. The cult probably varied here and there, and
that of a god of fertility may have taken the place of the cult of
goddesses. A god was worshipped by the Namnite women, according to
Strabo, goddesses according to Dionysius. The mangled victim was
probably regarded as representative of a divinity, and perhaps part of
the flesh was mixed with the seed-corn, like the grain of the Maiden
sheaf, or buried in the earth. This rite is common among savages, and
its presence in old European ritual is attested by survivals. That these
rites were tabu to men probably points to the fact that they were
examples of an older general custom, in which all such rites were in the
hands of women who cultivated the earth, and who were the natural
priestesses of goddesses of growth and fertility, of vegetation and the
growing corn. Another example is found in the legend and procession of
Godiva at Coventry--the survival of a pagan cult from which men were
excluded.[949]
Pliny speaks of the nudity of the women engaged in the cult. Nudity is
an essential part of all primitive agricultural rites, and painting the
body is also a widespread ritual act. Dressing with leaves or green
stuff, as among the Namnite women, and often with the intention of
personating the spirit of vegetation, is also customary. By unveiling
the body, and especially the sexual organs, women more effectually
represented the goddess of fertility, and more effectually as her
representatives, or through their own powers, magically conveyed
fertility to the fields. Nakedness thus became a powerful
magico-religious symbol, and it is found as part of the ritual for
producing rain.[950]
There is thus abundant evidence of the cult of fertility, vegetation,
and corn-spirits, who tended to become divinities, male or female. Here
and there, through conservatism, the cult remained in the hands of
women, but more generally it had become a ritual in which both men and
women took part--that of the great agricultural festivals. Where a
divinity had taken the place of the vaguer spirits, her image, like that
of Berecynthia, was used in the ritual, but the image was probably the
successor of the tree which embodied the vegetation-spirit, and was
carried through the fields to fertilise them. Similar processions of
images, often accompanied by a ritual washing of the image in order to
invigorate the divinity, or, as in the similar May-day custom, to
produce rain, are found in the Teutonic cult of Nerthus, the Phrygian of
Cybele, the Hindu of Bhavani, and the Roman ritual of the Bona Dea. The
image of Berecynthia was thus probably washed also. Washing the images
of saints, usually to produce rain, has sometimes taken the place of the
washing of a divine image, and similarly the relics of a saint are
carried through a field, as was the tree or image. The community at Iona
perambulated a newly sown field with S. Columba's relics in time of
drought, and shook his tunic three times in the air, and were rewarded
by a plentiful rain, and later, by a bounteous harvest.[951]
Many of these local cults were pre-Celtic, but we need not therefore
suppose that the Celts, or the Aryans as a whole, had no such
cults.[952] The Aryans everywhere adopted local cults, but this they
would not have done if, as is supposed, they had themselves outgrown
them. The cults were local, but the Celts had similar local cults, and
easily accepted those of the people they conquered. We cannot explain
the persistence of such primitive cults as lie behind the great Celtic
festivals, both in classical times and over the whole area of Europe
among the peasantry, by referring them solely to a pre-Aryan folk. They
were as much Aryan as pre-Aryan. They belong to those unchanging strata
of religion which have so largely supplied the soil in which its later
and more spiritual growths have flourished. And among these they still
emerge, unchanged and unchanging, like the gaunt outcrops of some
ancient rock formation amid rich vegetation and fragrant flowers.
FOOTNOTES:
[889] Pliny, xvi. 45; Cæsar, vi. 18. See my article "Calendar (Celtic)"
in Hastings' _Encyclopædia of Rel. and Ethics_, iii. 78 f., for a full
discussion of the problems involved.
[890] O'Donovan, _Book of Rights_, Intro. lii f.
[891] O'Donovan, li.; Bertrand, 105; Keating, 300.
[892] Samhain may mean "summer-end," from _sam_, "summer," and _fuin_,
"sunset" or "end," but Dr. Stokes (_US_ 293) makes _samani_- mean
"assembly," i.e. the gathering of the people to keep the feast.
[893] Keating, 125, 300.
[894] See MacBain, _CM_ ix. 328.
[895] Brand, i. 390; Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth
Century_, ii. 437; _Stat. Account_, xi. 621.
[896] Hazlitt, 297-298, 340; Campbell, _Witchcraft_, 285 f.
[897] Curtin, 72.
[898] Fitzgerald, _RC_ vi. 254.
[899] See Chambers, _Mediæval Stage_, App. N, for the evidence from
canons and councils regarding these.
[900] Tille, _Yule and Christmas_, 96.
[901] Chambers, _Popular Rhymes_, 166.
[902] Hutchinson, _View of Northumberland_, ii. 45; Thomas, _Rev. de
l'Hist. des Rel._ xxxviii. 335 f.
[903] _Patrol. Lot._ xxxix. 2001.
[904] _IT_ i. 205; _RC_ v. 331; Leahy, i. 57.
[905] See p. 169, _supra_.
[906] The writer has himself seen such bonfires in the Highlands. See
also Hazlitt, 298; Pennant, _Tour_, ii. 47; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 515, _CFL_ i.
225-226. In Egyptian mythology, Typhon assailed Horus in the form of a
black swine.
[907] Keating, 300.
[908] Joyce, _SH_ ii. 556; _RC_ x. 214, 225, xxiv. 172; O'Grady, ii.
374; _CM_ ix. 209.
[909] See Mannhardt, _Mythol. Forschung._ 333 f.; Frazer, _Adonis_,
_passim_; Thomas, _Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel._ xxxviii. 325 f.
[910] Hazlitt, 35; Chambers, _Mediæval Stage_, i. 261.
[911] Chambers, _Book of Days_, ii. 492; Hazlitt, 131.
[912] Hazlitt, 97; Davies, _Extracts from Munic. Records of York_, 270.
[913] See p. 237, _supra_; _LL_ 16, 213.
[914] Chambers, _Med. Stage_, i. 250 f.
[915] Cormac, _s.v._ "Belltaine," "Bel"; _Arch. Rev._ i. 232.
[916] D'Arbois, ii. 136.
[917] Stokes, _US_ 125, 164. See his earlier derivation, dividing the
word into _belt_, connected with Lithuan. _baltas_, "white," and _aine_,
the termination in _sechtmaine_, "week" (_TIG_ xxxv.).
[918] Need-fire (Gael. _Teinne-eiginn_, "necessity fire") was used to
kindle fire in time of cattle plague. See Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ 608 f.;
Martin, 113; Jamieson's _Dictionary_, _s.v._ "neidfyre."
[919] Cormac, _s.v._; Martin, 105, says that the Druids extinguished all
fires until their dues were paid. This may have been a tradition in the
Hebrides.
[920] Joyce, _PN_ i. 216; Hone, _Everyday Book_, i. 849, ii. 595.
[921] Pennant, _Tour in Scotland_, i. 291.
[922] Hazlitt, 339, 397.
[923] Hone, _Everyday Book_, ii. 595. See p. 215, _supra_.
[924] Sinclair, _Stat. Account_, xi. 620.
[925] Martin, 105.
[926] For these usages see Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the
Eighteenth Century_, ii. 439 f.; Sinclair, _Stat. Account_, v. 84, xi.
620, xv. 517. For the sacramental and sacrificial use of similar loaves,
see Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}, i. 94, ii. 78; Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ iii.
1239 f.
[927] _New Stat. Account_, Wigtownshire, 208; Hazlitt, 38, 323, 340.
[928] See Miss Owen, _Folk-lore of the Musquakie Indians_, 50; Frazer,
_Golden Bough_{2}, ii. 205.
[929] For notices of Beltane survivals see Keating, 300; Campbell,
_Journey from Edinburgh_, i. 143; Ramsay, _Scotland and Scotsmen_, ii.
439 f.; _Old Stat. Account_, v. 84, xi. 620, xv. 517; Gregor, _Folk-lore
of N.E. of Scotland_, 167. The paganism of the survivals is seen in the
fact that Beltane fires were frequently prohibited by Scottish
ecclesiastical councils.
[930] Meyrac, _Traditions ... des Ardennes_, 68.
[931] Bertrand, 119.
[932] Ibid. 407; Gaidoz, 21; Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, 514, 523; Brand,
i. 8, 323.
[933] Mannhardt, _op. cit._ 525 f.; Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}, iii. 319.
[934] P. 234, _supra_.
[935] Frazer, _op. cit._ i. 74; Brand, i. 222, 237, 246, 318; Hone,
_Everyday Book_, ii. 595; Mannhardt, _op. cit._ 177; Grimm, _Teut.
Myth._ 621, 777 f.
[936] See my _Childhood of Fiction_, ch. v.
[937] Frazer, i. 82, ii. 247 f., 275; Mannhardt, 315 f.
[938] Martin, 117. The custom of walking _deiseil_ round an object still
survives, and, as an imitation of the sun's course, it is supposed to
bring good luck or ward off evil. For the same reason the right hand
turn was of good augury. Medb's charioteer, as she departed for the war,
made her chariot turn to the right to repel evil omens (_LU_ 55).
Curiously enough, Pliny (xxviii. 2) says that the Gauls preferred the
left-hand turn in their religious rites, though Athenæus refers to the
right-hand turn among them. _Deiseil_ is from _dekso-s_, "right," and
_svel_, "to turn."
[939] Hone, i. 846; Hazlitt, ii. 346.
[940] This account of the Midsummer ritual is based on notices found in
Hone, _Everyday Book_; Hazlitt, ii. 347 f.; Gaidoz, _Le Dieu Soleil_;
Bertrand; Deloche, _RC_ ix. 435; _Folk-Lore_, xii. 315; Frazer, _Golden
Bough_{2}, iii. 266 f.; Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ ii. 617 f.; Monnier, 186 f.
[941] _RC_ xvi. 51; Guiraud, _Les Assemblées provinciales dans l'Empire
Romain_.
[942] D'Arbois, i. 215, _Les Celtes_, 44; Loth, _Annales de Bretagne_,
xiii. No. 2.
[943] _RC_ xvi. 51.
[944] Strabo, iv. 4. 6.
[945] Dion. Per. v. 570.
[946] Pliny, xxii. 1.
[947] Greg, _de Glor. Conf._ 477; Sulp. Sev. _Vita S. Martini_, 9; Pass.
S. Symphor. Migne, _Pat. Graec._ v. 1463, 1466. The cult of Cybele had
been introduced into Gaul, and the ritual here described resembles it,
but we are evidently dealing here with the cult of a native goddess.
See, however, Frazer, _Adonis_, 176.
[948] Anwyl, _Celtic Religion_, 41.
[949] See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_, 84 f.
[950] Professor Rh[^y]s suggests that nudity, being a frequent symbol of
submission to a conqueror, acquired a similar significance in religious
rites (_AL_ 180). But the magical aspect of nudity came first in time.
[951] Adamnan, _Vita S. Col._ ii. 45.
[952] See Gomme, _Ethnology in Folk-lore_, 30 f., _Village Community_,
114.