Below is an image showing the Common eight Fire festivals, please click on the names of the ceremonies for more information.
As we can see from this picture, each festival corresponds with a season, time of day and time of life, but, although the festivals are given to specific dates in the Gregorian (modern) calendar, they were at one time governed by solar, lunar and agricultural cycles. Imbolc for instace could have been celebrated when the first snowdrops appear, Lammas (Lughnassadh) marks the beginning of the harvest. in fact becasue of this the festivals were, in the time of our ancestors, very fluid in the passage of the year, with the exeption of the solstices and equinoxes which are of course fixed by the sun.
In fact the above model can be applied to just about every cycle in the universe.
Alas this page is very limited as there is so much more to this than can be told on a web page.
There may be some of you that are asking why we use Colours more commonly used in some of the Native American Medicine Wheels. The reason is that as a Tribe, we are trying to promote equality in all things, from culture to religion. The four colours in our wheel show the four colours of the races that make up the Great Tribe of Humankind, we do this to show that we are all equal, all beautiful, powerful and welcome.
Samhain (pronounce Sow-Ayne) is a three day festival, that in modern pagan practices is held around the time of the modern festival of Halloween. It is a three day festival that both ends and begins the Celtic Year. Samhain is the time of death and conception, it marks the first three days of winter and is also three days of no-time when the veils between this world and the spirit world are all but vanished. The Sun God, now an old and dying man, plants the seed of himself into his mother the Earth, so that he might be born again.
The main "goddess" celebrated in modern Samhain celebrations is the Caillieach (pronounced Kyall-Ee-Ach), or in some Welsh traditions she is called Cerridwen. However the name Samhain is taken from a much older Goddess who may be the prototype for both these, and other, crone goddesses. She is the Goddess of Death and rebirth, she takes bad things and turns them to good things. Lady of the swamp and Earth Tomb, lady of creation through destruction, lady of the Raven she teaches us to sacrifice the old and outworn things that hold us back and to embrace this as a good death to bad things and as a new beginning, a new life.
When the Christains came to these Islands, they took this festival and turned it into the three days of All Hallows Eve, All Souls day and All Saints day.
Date: 2nd November
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
The Winter Solstice falls roughly between the 20th and the 22nd of December dependent on the Solar cycle of that year. It is the Shortest day of the year, the time when the sun is at his weakest.
To many Modern Druids this is festival known as Alban Arthan, and to most other Pagans it bears the old Norse name, Yule.
Many of the Burial mounds (Tumuli) across Europe are aligned with the door facing the Winter Solstice sunrise and the same is true of stone circles.
To our early ancestors, this was a threatening time, a time that if the ceremonies were not performed correctly, the sun might never rise again!
It is evident from the inner chambers of some of the great mounds that these places were used at the time of the winter solstice sunrise for spiritual purpouses. As the sun rises (provided it's not cloudy, which is rare enough in Britain) a shaft of light creeps slowly from the door to the back of the chamber and after a moment, it creeps away again. Perhaps this channeling of light was to provide inspiration or initiation. In some chambers such as Newgrange in Ireland the lintels above the various doorways are covered in zig zag markings, this could represent the patterns that dust makes in this shaft of light when chants reach the right pitch.
Christianity has taken the initiative here and placed the festival of Christmas close to this date, as the sun is the light returning to the world of the pagan folk, so too is Jesus the light returning to the world of the Christian.
One of the more famous practices of the Druids during the winter solstice is that of cutting Golden bough, or by it's modren name, mistletoe. traditionally it was not allowed to touch the ground as this was seen as bad luck. Golden bough was seen as a representation of the Sun God's genitals. The white berries being his testes and thus it could add great fertility to ceremonies and prayers. Today we still follow part of this practice by hanging mistletoe in our homes and offices over the holiday period and kissing beneath it.
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 21st December 2008
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Imbolc (Pronounced Imm-olk) is where we now find the modern festival of Candlemass, it is around 31st January to 2nd February. Imbolc is the first day of Spring and it is seen as the Birth of the Sun. Fields are ploughed again at this time of year so that the frost can break the clods down into good soil. Imbolc is the Time of Birth, when the Earth sends up her first green shoots and when the sun is recognizably longer in the sky.
It is a time to make ready for the hustle and bustle of the coming year. It is also the festival of Brighid, Goddess of Smith craft, poetry and healing, who is represented by the snowdrops which now open up to reveal a white carpet of flowers.
Date: 1st February 2009
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
This day falls when the day and night are of equal length, roughly between the 20th and 21st of March dependent on the solar cycle. This day is a day of balance, a day when light and dark are in tune.
To many Modern Druids this festival is called Alban Eiler. To many other Pagans it bears the old Germanic name, Ostara.
It is a time to cast out the bad feelings and the blues and to accept Joy into your life, to accept the dark things but not dwell on them, for now the glory of the Sun lasts longer than the deep night.
Like the Winter Solstice, Christianity has placed an important festival between this date and Beltane to incorporate both festivals as one. That festival is Easter (the name also comes from the word Ostara). Where Christians use the same symbols for new life, the egg and for fertility, the hare or as it has now been changed to, the rabbit.
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 20th March 2009
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Beltane is a fertility and cleansing festival and is also traditionally the first day of Summer. Today we celebrate Beltane on 1st of May, but Old Beltane could have been celebrated with the opening of the Hawthorn Blossom.
The name Beltane meanse "Bel's Fire". Bel (or Belenos / Belenus) is a Celtic God of Fire and often during this ceremony two huge fires, which we call Bel fires, are lit. In ancient times the livestock and people would pass between them to be cleansed of disease, ticks, lice and also to bring fertility. The modern day equivalent of Beltane is May Day and the May day celebrations today still hold a huge amount of the old Pagan practices. The Maypole, Jumping the Broom, Morris Dancing and the Lord of Misrule are still to be found in many parts of Britain. The two sacred colours of Beltane are Red and White.
The sacred Marriage of the May Queen to the Green Man is the beginning of the Fertility of the Year and heralds the Summer.
In Edinburgh today Beltane is celebrated on Calton Hill with the the Beltane Fire Festival, an Annual event in which around 350 performers come together and perform Europe's largest Fire Festival on 30th April Every year.
This is the perfect time for expressing yourself through creativity and for adding fertility to new projects, or new life to old ones. As the new buds burst into flower and leaf, so too this is the perfect time for an exuberent display of pride and beauty.
Details of Edinburgh's Beltane festival and the Beltane Fire Society can be found at: www.beltane.org
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 2nd May 2009
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Falling on the longest day of the year (between the 20th and 22nd June dependent on the solar cycle of the year) this is probably the most famous of ceremonies to be associated with Druidry by people outside the tradition. Ask someone what do they think of when you say Druid and the three most common answers are White Robes, Stonehenge and the Summer Solstice.
To many modern Druids this day is known as Alban Hefin or Alban Heriun. Many modern Pagans call this day by is old Norse name, Litha.
Most, if not all stone circles, burial mounds and sanctuaries left over from pre-roman Britian are solar orientated. Of Course the Sun provides light and warmth, makes the crops grow and puts the fire in the heart and the loins and also which makes it easier to see the farmstead or hillfort you are raiding for cattle.
The longest day of the year also signals that very soon the hard work of the harvest will be upon us, and after that, the harshness of winter, so this is a day for one final day when you can let your hair down and relax before that hard work is here.
Today many people observe this festival with an all night vigil awaiting the sunrise and places such as Stonehenge and Castlerigg have become a focal point where tens of thousands of people travel there to watch the first ray of the sun creep over the horizon. Alas events like these make Druids into more of a tourist attraction than practitioners of a very serious, indigenous and powerful spiritual path.
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 21st June 2009
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: Please contact us for information
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Perhaps the time of greatest activity in the Celtic world is the Harvest. Generally falling at the beginning of August, Lammas is more the beginning of the Harvest season that the harvest as a whole, certainly the Fruit Harvest happens around the Autumn Equinox and the "meat harvest" happens at Samhuinn.
This day is also often called Lughnassadh (pronounced Loo-Nass-Aah) which is named for Lugh, an Irish solar deity whocalled for three days of festivities in honour of his foster mother Tailtu. Tailtu had given her life to clear the fields that crops may be grown.
All that has been sown, tended with care and nurtured will now bear fruit. This is a time of great prosperity and is a traditional time for marriages (or handfastings), naming ceremonies and the setting of tribal alliances by fosterage. This day should be used to honour the ancient practices of horse races, martial arts, dance, music, poetry and other sports and forms of expression. There may be an Eisteddfod which is a welsh word that litterally means "a sitting". An Eisteddfod is a competition of arts and is used at most modern Druid festivals. This ancient British Practice has been kept alive in Wales through the many invasions and occupations of Britain and even now there is an annual Eisteddfod that draws in competitors from all across Wales.
This is also the day that wicker men are built and burned, Thanksfully our Ancestors left the practice of Sacrifice behind LONG ago!!! We feel that we should point out that Wicker men sacrifices were not malicious practices and most liekly did NOT contain humans, they would have been burned as a way of sharing the bounty of the harvest with the Gods as a huge thank you.
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 1st August 2008
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Mabon is the middle of Autumn and is also the approximate time of the fruit harvest. Mabon falls roughly between 20th and 22nd of September depending on the solar cycle of that year.
This is, like the Spirng Equinox, a day where day is the same length as night and we say goodbye now to the warm times of summer and prepare ourselves for the harshness of winter where neighbouring tribes might more readily raid us for cattle, where the forest predators are hungrier and braver and where, should you get lost, without the modern convenience of roads, you might not make it to a safe warm roundhouse.
To many Modern Druids this day is called Alban Elued and of course many pagans call this day Mabon which is the name of the Celtic sacred child.
We hold an open ceremony for this day:
Date: 22nd September 2008
Time: 7pm till whenever
Cost: £3
Please note that people under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
