Winter Solstice.
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
You'd be surprised at who comes out for the Winter Solstice... you're more likely to wake up with them surrounding your tent if you're camping in the middle of the circle lol
Well i'm off fishing on Christmas day on my lonesome as per usual....Grayling doon the clyde. nae bailiffs ye see. Ha
Be home around 5 ish and if it's anything like last year i'll have the neighbours fussing over me because i appear to spend Christmas alone...
I have good neighbours. Neighbours who instead of throwing out the remnants of the Christmas debauchery, chap my door, and like the three wise kings of orient arrr, deposit all sorts of scrumptious goodies....it's no wonder i'm seriously overweight.
It's all good though. They know they can rely on me to give them a hand with heavy stuff in and out the house and a wee bit of painting and decorating when required.
All is good.
Be home around 5 ish and if it's anything like last year i'll have the neighbours fussing over me because i appear to spend Christmas alone...
I have good neighbours. Neighbours who instead of throwing out the remnants of the Christmas debauchery, chap my door, and like the three wise kings of orient arrr, deposit all sorts of scrumptious goodies....it's no wonder i'm seriously overweight.
It's all good though. They know they can rely on me to give them a hand with heavy stuff in and out the house and a wee bit of painting and decorating when required.
All is good.
Can I just say that the original "Druids" (Iron Age) have nothing to do with standing stones (Bronze Age) and the modern "Druids" (New Age) have nothing to do with either.
Little is known about how people celebrated the solstice in pre Christian Europe because no one but the Romans left a significant written record. As such people are free to make up their own personal rituals and celebrate them where they will and this is exactly what all these "New Age" sects have done.
That's all perfectly fine, each to their own and all that, I just wish they would stop trying to use history to justify it all.
Little is known about how people celebrated the solstice in pre Christian Europe because no one but the Romans left a significant written record. As such people are free to make up their own personal rituals and celebrate them where they will and this is exactly what all these "New Age" sects have done.
That's all perfectly fine, each to their own and all that, I just wish they would stop trying to use history to justify it all.
Thank crosslandkelly. Thats a pretty good link.
Shame Elen Sentiers not around she must be the leading authority on Celtic mythology on here. Have you seen some of her books on amazon! They look very impressive.
There just seems to be so much more to celtic mythology that Im aware of. All of the stories, about the heroes, and the gods. Its odd that we are all more aware of greek myth and legends than 'our own' dont you think?
Where are all the films about the celts?
Shame Elen Sentiers not around she must be the leading authority on Celtic mythology on here. Have you seen some of her books on amazon! They look very impressive.
There just seems to be so much more to celtic mythology that Im aware of. All of the stories, about the heroes, and the gods. Its odd that we are all more aware of greek myth and legends than 'our own' dont you think?
Where are all the films about the celts?
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Mass Howe has a camera on it to see the solstice stuff - it's looking good for whatever awful o'clock it is tomorrow morning (4am ish). I'm in Amsterdam, so I'm watching it from here!
The one in North Wales I think you're referring to is on Anglesey, barclodiad-y-gawres and also on the cover of this month's current archaeology mag.
Happy solstice....
The one in North Wales I think you're referring to is on Anglesey, barclodiad-y-gawres and also on the cover of this month's current archaeology mag.
Happy solstice....
Cool, thanks Lizz. I shall look them up.
We used to go to angelsey all the time as a kid, but I cant remember it too well.
But this looks amazing!
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Academic historians have tended to favour primary written sources so the Greeks, Romans and even Egyptian mythologies are fairly well documented.
Norse and Celtic mythology survived to some degree only because of much later, secondary, written sources which are fragmentary and of less certain provenance.
It's only fairly recently that archaeology is adding some weight to those fragmentary sources but even now there are still huge holes in our knowledge.
Norse and Celtic mythology survived to some degree only because of much later, secondary, written sources which are fragmentary and of less certain provenance.
It's only fairly recently that archaeology is adding some weight to those fragmentary sources but even now there are still huge holes in our knowledge.
I reckon the Norse stuff survived because the Romans didn't get that far north... they were too busy playing in the woods with the Germans. The history we've lost from the destruction of tribes like the Iceni is gutting though... the few items that have survived show what talented metal workers they were. The Romans viewed them as mindless barbarians, so their culture was deemed okay to wipe out. Any traditions left have probably been corrupted by centuries of monarchs deciding what is good for that day and cults that have come along with their own dogma.
Celebrating the solstice with the odd tradition is probably not historically accurate, but then it always cheers me up
Celebrating the solstice with the odd tradition is probably not historically accurate, but then it always cheers me up
I reckon that people found the 'fixed' points, the nadir and the zenith, the solstices and the equinoxes, and tied their year, their celebrations and their lives around those.
Seasons are too mutable, this December warmth is a case in point. But the day length, the time of light and dark, those are not.
So, the Solstice marks the shortest day and then the light returns, and folks have a fire and a party to encourage it along
In to that they tie their hopes for a good year to come as well.
We do know that in the past (I believe that the Jewish folks still do) people thought of a day as from dusk to dusk…..like us starting the clock again at midnight I suppose. One in the 'morning' is generally still dark o'clock
So, is it really this longest dark night that we should light up ?
M
Seasons are too mutable, this December warmth is a case in point. But the day length, the time of light and dark, those are not.
So, the Solstice marks the shortest day and then the light returns, and folks have a fire and a party to encourage it along
In to that they tie their hopes for a good year to come as well.
We do know that in the past (I believe that the Jewish folks still do) people thought of a day as from dusk to dusk…..like us starting the clock again at midnight I suppose. One in the 'morning' is generally still dark o'clock
So, is it really this longest dark night that we should light up ?
M
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