‘Articles’ Archives
Spanish Celts
From the Celtic History Newsletter: People usually don't think of Spain when they think of Celts, but other than Gaul it is the only other place where the use of the term "Celt" is documented in antiquity in the form of names such as "Celtius" and tribal names such as "Celti Praestamarici." Celts seem to have been just one of many peoples [...]
Crannogs
From the Celtic History Newsletter: Crannogs are usually artificial "islands" that were constructed mainly in lakes, but on occasion in rivers. The name may derive from the Irish word for tree "crann" and may have referred to the timber palisades that protected such sites, or the timber foundations on which they were built. In Ireland most [...]
Tartan Day
From the Celtic History Newsletter: I was planning on talking more about the earliest inhabitants of Ireland this month, but I’m moving that to next month. Since Tartan Day is coming up April 7th I decided to take a quick look at this new holiday to give people a little time to learn about, or organize their own local celebrations. Since [...]
List of Irish Drinking Songs
by Marc Gunn Celts around the world love a good song with which they can sing along. Irish drinking songs are of that variety. They are fun songs, usually about drinking, that bring out the excited folksinger in all of us. When I sent a question out to my Twitter fans asking them what were their favorite Irish drinking songs. I was swamped [...]
A Brief History of St Patrick’s Day
by Michelle Osborne The story of St. Patrick's Day begins around 385 AD with a man named Maewyn. At age 16, the Pagan Maewyn was sold into slavery, which brought him closer to God. He finally managed to escape slavery six years later and headed to a monastery in Gaul to study, where he adopted the Christian name "Patrick." Upon ending his [...]
How NOT to Wear a Great Kilt
by Julian Jensen Since we are on the topic of removing pants: My first encounter with the kilt phenomenon this Pennsic. Anyone who has ever worn a real kilt knows instantly that there is no dignity to be salvaged from kilts. I am not talking about those wimpy little kilts that you simply buy and strap on. Bah! I am talking the [...]
Settlement of Ireland
From the Celtic History Newsletter: It was about 11 thousand years ago that the last Ice Age started coming to a close, and the bare of Ireland was colonized quickly by plant species such as grasses, dock and meadow-sweet, followed by juniper, willow, birch and hazel. It was about 10,000 years ago that the first know human inhabitants came to [...]
Irish Megalithic Tombs
From the Celtic History Newsletter: Last month I said that one of the more notable changes started by the early Irish farming culture was in the burial of their dead. There is little surviving evidence of burial customs among the earlier hunter-gatherer peoples of Ireland, but starting around 4000 BC we see the first funerary monuments in the [...]
New Kilt Wearers’ Tips
From the Celtic History Newsletter: Last month I said I was going to continue my discussion of Celtic crosses, but with summer here and the Highland games / Renaissance fair / reenactment season here I thought it would be a good time write something lighter and to share a few tips for people who are trying to wear a kilt for the first time. [...]
Druids
From the Celtic History Newsletter: According to Julius Caesar The Druids were: "concerned with divine worship, the due performance of sacrifices, public and private, and the interpretation of ritual questions: a great number of young men gather about them for the sake of instruction and hold them in great honor. In fact it is they who [...]
