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Diagram comparing the Celtic, astronomical and meteorological calendars. Among the Insular Celts, the year was divided into a light half and a dark half.As the day was seen as beginning at sunset, so the year was seen as beginning with the arrival of the darkness, at Calan Gaeaf / Samhain (around 1 November in the modern calendar). [4]
The Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere.Some Pagans in the Southern Hemisphere advance these dates six months to coincide with their own seasons.. The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them.
But it does not necessarily follow that the calendar was then based on a 30-year cycle. If the calendar was a 30-year cycle, the luni-solar swing would be 46 days, meaning that the timing of festivals would often be inappropriate to their seasonal nature. For example, Lugnasad might find itself in the middle of the busy harvest.
Samhain (/ ˈ s ɑː w ɪ n / SAH-win, / ˈ s aʊ ɪ n / SOW-in, Irish: [ˈsˠəunʲ], Scottish Gaelic: [ˈs̪ãũ.ɪɲ]) or Sauin (Manx: [ˈsoːɪnʲ]) is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. [1]
Diagram comparing the Celtic, astronomical and meteorological calendars. The Irish calendar is the Gregorian calendar as it is in use in Ireland, but also incorporating Irish cultural festivals and views of the division of the seasons, presumably inherited from earlier Celtic calendar traditions.
[27] [28] It is based on the historical use of the triskele in Celtic Ireland and it is used as an alternative to religious imagery. In this context, the three spirals represent the cycle of birth, life and death. [28] The spiral is used by some polytheistic reconstructionist or neopagan groups.
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The centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle is the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Other important Ulster Cycle tales include The Tragic Death of Aife's only Son, Fled Bricrenn "Bricriu's Feast", and Togail Bruidne Dá Derga "The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel". This cycle is, in some respects, close to the mythological cycle of the rest of the Gaelic speaking ...