Rituals and Festivals
There are four main Celtic festivals. The first is Imbolc, or the first day of Spring, which is celebrated on February 1st. When Christianity spread, Imbolc turned into St. Brigid's Day. The second festival is Beltaine, which marks the end of the dark part of the year and welcomes summer on the first of May. It is the day associated with moving cattle to higher pastures and beginning new projects. The third festival, Lughnasa, is celebrated on August 1st. It is closely associated with the Celtic sun god Lugh. It is also an important communal date with a big feast to mark the occasion. Celts would gather at one of the traditional sites around the country. The fourth and most commonly referenced festival is Samhain, which takes place on the first of November. It marks the end of one year and the birth of another. In Celtic polytheism, it was considered a time when the gods were hostile and dangerous and had to be pleased by making sacrifices.
The Celts also practiced sacrifice with both animals and humans. They made sacrifices in order to receive good luck and to ward off the malicious side of the spiritual world. Sacrificed animals were feasted upon in order to achieve a communal link with the spiritual world. An example of a sacrificial ritual is the Bull Feast, the Celtic way of choosing a King. A chosen man drank the blood and ate the meat of a sacrificed bull. Then four druids, or Celtic priests, would do incantations as he fell asleep. The sleeping man would then dream of who is the rightful king. This ritual served as a way of involving the input of the gods. However, it was only a small piece of the election process.
The Celts also practiced sacrifice with both animals and humans. They made sacrifices in order to receive good luck and to ward off the malicious side of the spiritual world. Sacrificed animals were feasted upon in order to achieve a communal link with the spiritual world. An example of a sacrificial ritual is the Bull Feast, the Celtic way of choosing a King. A chosen man drank the blood and ate the meat of a sacrificed bull. Then four druids, or Celtic priests, would do incantations as he fell asleep. The sleeping man would then dream of who is the rightful king. This ritual served as a way of involving the input of the gods. However, it was only a small piece of the election process.
Spiritual Leaders and Guides
The Druids were the priests, teachers, and judges of the ancient Celts. They were in charge of sacrifices and the vessels for advice. As a whole, the Druids were the leaders of the Celts spiritually and in every other way. They forbade written recording of Celtic ways, which is why it is so hard to find them now. All Celtic traditions were to be passed down orally in order to maintain their validity. The Druids spent a lot of their time in oak forests, and they were constantly studying. They studied everything from ancient verse, natural philosophy, and astronomy to the lore of the gods. After Christianity overwhelmed Europe, they lost their positions as priests and were only poets(filid), historians(senchaidi), and judges(brithemain). Along with the Brahmins of Hinduism, they are considered to be lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-European priesthood.
Places of Worship
While the Celts did have temples, they were mainly left to nature. Most of them had at most a boundary ditch, an open-air altar, and a crude wooden image of the god. Very few actual buildings were constructed in honor of their gods. As they were infatuated with nature, their gods were worshiped in the midst of nature rather than stuffed inside a building. Their sanctuaries varied from caves, clearings in the woods, rocky sites, areas near springs, rivers, lakes, or the coast. The Druid priests in particular often worshiped at stone monuments in the forest.
Funerary Practices
The Irish Celts main funerary practice was cremation. There was also a ritual destruction of weapons in order to maintain their bond with the dead and carry their power to the other world. There is archaeological evidence of fire rituals and funerary banquets as well. Due to the lack of any large ancient cemeteries, it can be assumed that cremation was the main funerary rite. As water was an essential element for access to the other world, it is highly likely that cremated remains were deposited in streams, rivers, and other bodies of water. The Continental Celts, on the other hand, were buried with their treasures in preparation for the other world, and even considered burning of the dead to be disrespectful, only valid for sacrifices and criminals.