Celtic
Religion:
The ancient Celts believed in an Otherworld.
The Otherworld was the home of many gods and goddess. It was a place
of joy, where feasts were always happening. The Otherworld
was NOT a heaven. It was NOT a reward for doing something good on
earth. The Celts believed that everyone entered the
Otherworld when they died.
Celtic
Tombs:
Like the ancient Egyptians, the ancient
Celts wanted their dead to have nice things with them. They wanted
them to have food for the trip. They buried their dead in tombs.
Their tombs were not huge things like the Egyptian pyramids. But
they were the size of a large room. The walls were decorated with
drawings of earth gods, sun gods, various spirits, and scenes of
battle and daily life.
They never placed living people or animals
inside a tomb. Instead, they tucked little figures of people cooking
and hunting. Occasionally, they placed life-sized things into a
tomb. One tomb was found with a full size four-wheel wagon in it,
and a full size bronze kettle for cooking.
Waterfalls
were one of the many doorways to the Otherworld: Natural
waterfalls, especially small ones, were believed to have healing
power. To the ancient Celts, they were entrances to the Otherworld.
Gifts were left by waterfalls for the gods. Some gifts were even
tossed down wells or into springs. If
you were injured, you might place something in a stream to help you
heal. For example, if your leg was injured, you might carve a wooden
leg and place it in a stream. It did not always work, but the Celts
remained great believers anyway in the power of the little spirits
and gods whom they believed lived in streams and ponds and
waterfalls.
The
ancient Celts believed in many gods and goddesses.
The ancient Celts believed that every tree, every bush, every flower,
every everything had a little deity living
in it. Some of their gods and goddesses were extremely powerful. But
most were little deities.
The ancient Celts did not worship
their gods. They did not go to church. Instead, they left little
offerings all over the place. Each fine had their own special little
deities. Each clan had theirs as well.
Unlike the ancient Greeks, the gods
of the ancient Celts did not trouble themselves with the affairs of
men, unless they were asked to do so.
Sacred
animals:
The Celts believed in omens. Birds,
especially, were believed to be able to carry messages between the
living world and the Otherworld. Many animals were given
special powers that could only be understood by a Celtic priest -
the druids. Some animals were hunted for food.
Hunting wild boar was considered a great sport.
Druids:
The Celts believed that demons and spirits
were everywhere. They believed that omens and portents were
everywhere. They counted on their priests, the druids, to keep them
safe from trouble. The druids were responsible for all religious
rituals, because the only person who could talk to a god was a
druid.
The druids were the soothsayers, the seers, the
teachers, the doctors, the philosophers, and the lawyers in Celtic
society. To become a druid, you had to study with the druids for at
least twenty years. The druids had their own universities. There was
a lot to learn.
The Celtic people went to the druids for everything.
If a child was sick, you went to your druid, who might cure the
child with medicine they made from a plant. If two fines were having
a fight over a boundary, a druid would decide who was right and who
was mistaken. If a raven flew over a homestead, the fine might
want to know what it meant. To find out, you asked the druids.
Druids were members of a clan like
everyone else. They were highly respected, and powerful. Druids decided who
could get married, who inherited, and established the honor price
for each individual in their clan.
Honor
Price: Your honor price was your worth. If you
accidentally injured or killed someone, your fine had to pay the
honor price of the person you hurt. If more than one person was
involved, the bill was split equally between all the guilty parties.
Monies went to the injured person's fine.
Stonehenge:
Stonehenge is a collection of huge and
oddly shaped rocks. Today, Stonehenge is a tourist attraction in
Britain. For a long time, people believed the Druids built
Stonehenge.
Scientists today, using modern methods of dating,
know that Stonehenge was built around 2800 BCE, long before the Iron
Age Celts arrived in Britain. Nobody knows who
built Stonehenge or why it was built.
However, since the Stone Age Celts believed
that demons and spirits were everywhere, most historians agree
that the Druids probably used Stonehenge for religious
ceremonies, although they did not build it.
The Stone Age Celts were
a creative and imaginative people. It was the Celts who invented
fairies and elves. How could such a people resist assigning
importance to this awesome collection of huge towering rocks?
They might have believed it was a special entrance to the
Otherworld, or a place of special healing. Nobody knows for sure.
For many reasons, Stonehenge remains an unsolved
mystery.
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