Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source: http://www.exploringireland.net
Celtic Symbols
Celtic symbols, arts and culture
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Dec 18
Learn to live in harmony with the Green World Many people today distance themselves from the Earth. They forget they are a part of Nature. Magic of the Celtic Otherworld offers a holistic, magical system that will break down the barriers between you and the natural world. Drawing upon Irish Celtic spiritual tradition, history, and mythology, this book provides wondrous stories, seasonal rituals, and practical exercises that will expand your spiritual potential. This sel…
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Irish Tattoos
Filed under Celtic TattoosNov 13
http://www.easytattoofinder… See more great Irish and Celtic tattoo designs and read comprehensive objective reviews about the top tattoo finders on the web at EasyTattooFinder.com. -
In Search of Ancient Ireland: The Origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English
Filed under Celtic cultureNov 13
Review
A great story, interesting to read and appealing to anyone with an interest in Ireland…A readable history…poignant, not pedantic. — Virginia Garnett in Carroll County TimesIn bite-sized morsels … Search tells us about both the major figures central to … events and the daily lives of commoners. — Richmond Times-Dispatch A clearly recommended pick for anyone interested in…Irish history . Provides an important gateway to understanding early Irish roots. — The…
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Nov 6
Tain Bo Cuailnge meaning the Cattle Raid of Cooley is a legendary epic from early Irish literature. The Táin Bó Cuailnge represents the oldest vernacular tale of Western Europe, predating both Beowulf and Homer’s Odyssey. It describes the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Queen Medb of Connaught and her husband Ailill intending to steal the Brown Bull of Cuailnge. They are faced only by the boy warrior Cuchulainn, the rest of the men of Ulster being incapacitated by an ancient curse placed by the ancient Celtic goddess of war, Macha. Cuchulainn is young enough to be free of the curse, he manages to hold off the invading armies until the Ulstermen are free of the curse. Aided only by his charioteer Laeg he wages a guerrilla campaign against the invading hordes. However Medb succeeds in capturing the bull but Cuchulainn prevents her from returning to Connaught by invoking the right of single combat at fords. For months Cuchulainn challenges and defeats warrior after warrior. The greatest of these fights is against his foster brother and best friend Ferdiad, a fierce contest rages for three days, Cuchulainn eventually killing his opponent with the mighty spear called the Gae Bulg. Eventually the Ulstermen are freed from their curse and one by one they appear on the battlefield and the final conflict occurs in which Medb’s armies are routed, however she manages in hauling the Brown Bull of Cuailnge back to Conaught where he fights her white bull, Finnbheannach. The Brown Bull kills him but is mortally wounded, it wanders around Ireland creating place names before returning home to die of exhaustion.
The world portrayed in the Tain is an essentially pre-Christian heroic age. War is conducted between warriors armed with swords and spears and mounted in chariots with drivers. Interestingly, it is also a world in which a queen may possess wealth independently of her husband and, indeed, compete with him and raise an army. The Tain Bo Cuailnge has survived in two main recensions, the first is contained in the Lebor na hUidre, an eleventh century text compiled in Clonmacnoise and in the fourteenth century Yellow Book of Lecan. A complete text can be compiled by combining these two sources. The second recension can be found in the twelfth century Book of Leinster.Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source: http://www.exploringireland.net
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Nov 6
Irish / Celtic Gods and Goddesses (Part 1) – The Ever Living OnesThe Celtic pantheon is known from a variety of sources, these include written Celtic mythology, ancient places of worship, statu…
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Oct 30
Irish / Celtic Gods and Goddesses (Part 1) – The Ever Living OnesThe Celtic pantheon is known from a variety of sources, these include written Celtic mythology, ancient places of worship, statu…
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Oct 28
Gearrscannan as gaeilge é ó TG4. Irish language short film with english subtitles. Srarring Stephen Rey. -
Sep 22
On the 21 November 2006, it was agreed by the EU that Irish would become the 21st official language of the EU. Irish is really an ancient Celtic language called Gaelic. Gaelic is also the official language of Scotland, thus far part of the UK. The two Gaelic languages are somewhat different, quite different in fact. The different languages.within our world are part of what makes it colourful and interesting and the debate about how many different languages that we, the people of this planet should use, will go on as long as the world exists.
About 30% of the Irish speak Gaelic, we are told; this is in the Southern independent part of Ireland, which gained its freedom from the UK in the early 19th Century, leaving only Northern Ireland as part of the UK.
Southern Ireland is part of the EU and has the Euro as its currency, Northern Ireland is part of the UK and as such also belongs to the EU, the UK (which includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) does not use the Euro, so it is not the currency for those countries either.
Confused enough yet? The Welsh and the Scottish also have their own Parliaments (Assemblies) and can make certain laws of their own, so for someone going to work in the British Isles, this mix of currency, laws and language create a nice labyrinth to work out!
No doubt all this multi-partisan status exists all over the World in different countries, with differing interests, loyalties and histories. In that sense it seems that Globalisation is a force for the good as it unites the people of this tiny planet and helps them to acknowledge that we are all in this together and maybe it’s time to time to preserve the past, but not try live in it.
© languagejobs4u.comJane Merrow is the owner of www.languagejobs4u.com, a multilingual jobsite offering Recruiters and multilingual Jobseekers the opportunity to find each other online. She has many years’ experience in the multilingual recruitment area.
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Sep 18
Learn to live in harmony with the Green World Many people today distance themselves from the Earth. They forget they are a part of Nature. Magic of the Celtic Otherworld offers a holistic, magical system that will break down the barriers between you and the natural world. Drawing upon Irish Celtic spiritual tradition, history, and mythology, this book provides wondrous stories, seasonal rituals, and practical exercises that will expand your spiritual potential. This self-e…
Buy Magic of the Celtic Otherworld: Irish History, Lore & Rituals at Amazon -
Irish / Celtic Mythology: The Tuatha Dé Danann And Cath Maige Tuired Revised Edition
Filed under Celtic mythSep 11
I use dates as in Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Ãirinn: the history of Ireland (FFE).The Mythological Cycle is the first of the four major cycles of Irish mythology, and is so called because …
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Happy Celtic New Year’s
Filed under Celtic cultureNov 2Samhain, or Halloween marks the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half in the Celtic calendar. It may seem odd to think of November 1 as New Year’s Day, but perhaps no stranger than January 1, which is, after all, the heart of winter. A more intuitive New Year’s Day would probably be the start of Spring, around March 21. However, it’s interesting to contemplate why the Celts chose the time of year when winter was approaching to mark the New Year.
Samhain, which was the largest celebration in medieval Ireland, lasting for three days, is also the name of the month of November in Irish and Scottish. It marks the final harvest, as well as being a time to honor the dead. It is also believed to be a time when the “veil” between worlds -the world of the living and the world of the dead- is thinnest. This is the origin of modern Halloween ghosts, witches and so forth.
Wiccan and Celtic Re-constructionist pagans also honor Samhain as the highest holy day. They generally follow the Celtic Wheel of the Year, which is marked by the four seasonal changes (the solstices and equinoxes) and four festivals, Beltane, Samhain, Lughnasa and Imbolc. While the ancient and medieval Celts probably did not follow this calendar precisely, it is based on some of the traditional Celtic festivals and honors the Celtic practice of following the cycles of nature.
Some religious fundamentalists, meanwhile, see Halloween or Samhain as satanic or a celebration of heathen gods. While the latter may be true from a Christian (or monotheistic) point of view, the notion that pagan beliefs are satanic is not accurate. The fact is, paganism originates from a world view that did not recognize a single malevolent entity such as Satan or the Devil, so such an entity was neither worshipped nor feared or hated.
Many Celtic Christians have integrated the traditions of their pagan ancestors with Christian beliefs. For example, November 1 is also All Saints Day. The other pagan festivals have been similarly “updated” with Christian interpretations.
Whatever path you follow, Happy Celtic New Year!
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Sep 12
Thanks for visiting the Celtic Symbols blog! This site is inspired by the beauty and enduring popularity of Celtic symbols such as knotwork, zoomorphic images (those depicting animals, both real and imaginary, such as sea monsters and dragons) and other images. These images are very commonly seen today in many art books, in jewelry, as tattoos and fantasy art (paintings, book covers, CD covers, etc.).
Celtic art goes way back in history, and I’ll be exploring some of this fascinating tradition. There will also be links to other interesting sites and resources. I think Celtic symbols and artwork has such appeal, not only for its intrinsic beauty, but because it expresses something of the infinite, as in a Celtic knot. There is both a spirituality and earthiness to Celtic art.
I’d like to explore the many ways Celtic symbols have been used over the centuries, including languages. For example, one of the earliest Celtic languages was the Irish Tree Alphabet, known as Ogham. This, and other aspects of Celtic or Gaelic languages have also become very popular recently, especially in music.
So please visit this site often and keep up with this fascinating aspect of Celtic culture!
Tagged as: Artwork, Back, Beauty, Book, Celtic, Celtic art, Celtic knot, Celtic Languages, Celtic symbols, Culture, Fascinating, Gaelic, History, Images, Irish, Jewelry, Knot, Knotwork, Language, Languages, Lore, Music, Ogham, Over, Popular, Ring, Size, Spirit, Spiritual, Symbols, Tattoo, TATTOOS, They, This, Used, Very, Ways, With, Word
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