Block, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, edit
14,282
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 56:
Line 56: − − ===The Celtic calendar=== − ''Cormaic's Glossay'' was started by the king-bishop of Munster around AD 900. Many of its entries were added centuries later. It gives ''Imbol'' (February 1) as the first day of spring, ''Beltaine'' (May 1) the first day of summer, ''Lugnasad'' (August 1) the first day of fall, and ''Samhain'' (November 1) the first day of winter.<ref name="Olmsted">Olmsted, Garrett (2009). ''The Coligny Calendar: the Implications for Gaulish and Irish Festival Dates''.</ref> The Irish adopted the Julian calendar around AD 450. The seasonal dates may have transferred from the Celtic calendar at this time. − − A Celtic lunisolar calendar has been reconstructed from fragments of two first century BC calendars found in the French towns of Coligny and Villards d'Heria. The first month on this calendar is called ''Samonios''. This month is cognate with Samhain. The Celts celebrated a three-day festival that began on the 17th of ''Samonios'', according to the calendar. This date may correspond to the winter solstice, which is on December 21.<ref name="Olmsted"/> − − With a leap day every five years, the Coligny calendar gives the length of a solar year as 365.20 days. Since the true length is 365.2422 days, the calendar drifted by one day every 23.7 years.<ref name="Olmsted"/><ref>The amount of drift can be used to estimate the age of the calendar. For Samhain to move from the December-January period to November suggests that the calendar was in use for about 1,300 years. Pliny writes that Celtic months started on sixth day of the lunar cycle. This suggests that the calendar had already accumulated a thousand years worth of drift in his time, according to Olmsted.</ref>
→The Celtic calendar: Move this discussion to Samhain
{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.
{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.
London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.<br/>While others partied, Ulster hero Cuchulain was on his sick bed receiving an extended vision of ''Mag Mell'', the Plain of Delight, a Celtic version the [[Elysian Fields | Elysian fields]].</ref>}}
London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.<br/>While others partied, Ulster hero Cuchulain was on his sick bed receiving an extended vision of ''Mag Mell'', the Plain of Delight, a Celtic version the [[Elysian Fields | Elysian fields]].</ref>}}
===American Halloween===
===American Halloween===