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Christian Prayers & Resources |
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inspired by the Celtic Christian Church |
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Praying through the Celtic Year
I was recently set a challenge, and that was to look at writing a set of Christian liturgies that would follow through the main seasons and festivals of the pagan Celtic year. The reasoning behind this was the increasing interest in Wicca and pagan religions. I was a little unsure about this as a profitable use of time, but then I thought about how Christianity first came to this land, and how a pagan culture not only changed their spiritual alliegence and began to worship the one true God, but brought to it some of the positive ideas and pictures that those who are interested in the early Christianity of Britain (or Celtic Christianity if you prefer the term) would be able to relate to. In fact, if you look at these ancient festivals you also discover that the early Christian Church introduced (or moved) festivals with similar themes as an alternative. Briefly, the Celtic Year traditionally (though open to debate!) starts with the celebration of Samhain (pronounced 'sow'inn' and the word for November in some Gaelic languages) which is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. It was also the time of year when the veils between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be at their thinnest: when the spirits of the dead could most readily mingle with the living once again. Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows' Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead (not forgetting the festival of Harvest Thanksgiving which tends to be a moveable feast these days) In Ireland the year was divided into two periods of six months by the feasts of Beltane (May 1) and Samhain ( November 1), and each of these periods was equally divided by the feasts of Imbolc (February 1st or 2nd), and Lughnasadh (August 1) Beltane (the Gaelic names for either
the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day
of May) is a festival celebrating the beginning of summer and open
pasturing in Ireland and Scotland. There were similar festivals
held at the same time in the other Celtic countries of Wales, Brittany
and Cornwall. The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s,
and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today. Pilgrimages
to holy wells are traditional at this time, and offerings and prayers
to the spirits or deities of the wells are usually part of this
practice. Imbolc most commonly is celebrated on February 2nd, since this is the cross-quarter day on the solar calendar, halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere. Among agrarian peoples, Imbolc has been traditionally associated with the onset of lactation of ewes, soon to give birth to the spring lambs. The Christian Church of course sought to introduce an alternative festival and so the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, and falls on or around February 2nd. Lughnasadh marked the beginning of
the harvest season, the ripening of first fruits, and was traditionally
a time of community gatherings, market festivals, horse races and
reunions with distant family and friends. On mainland Europe and
in Ireland many people continue to celebrate the holiday with bonfires
and dancing. The Christian church has established the ritual of
blessing the fields on this day and in some English-speaking countries
in the Northern Hemisphere, August 1st is Lammas Day (loaf-mass
day), the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this
day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new
crop.
These new liturgies will be posted as written, and hopefully in time for the relevant festival. I hope that they will prove useful (Let me know!) Imbolc (February 1st or 2nd) Beltane (May 1) Lughnasadh (August 1)
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