There are four major festivals in the Gaelic calendar, which are spaced exactly three months apart throughout the year. They are:
Imbolc – February 1
Beltaine – May 1
Lugnasad – August 1
Samain – November 1
These are the Old Irish spellings of the festival names. In the modern Gaelic languages each of the festivals may now have a slightly different name (which we’ll get into later), but the Old Irish names are useful for us to use when we’re talking about the festivals in a general, all-encompassing sense.
For each of these four festivals the evidence is pretty clear in pointing to their pre-Christian roots. Despite this, they continued to be observed well into the Christian period, and some form of celebrations may even still be observed today. Some of these festivals have come to be quite heavily Christianised, while others have carried on being quietly observed with very little overt interference from Christian quarters – becoming rather secularised in tone.
Quite often you’ll see these festivals being referred to as ‘quarter days.’ This means each of the festivals marked the start of the new season (spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively), and – historically speaking – because they divided the year up into four equal parts, this offered a convenient way of measuring the time, for all kinds of things. The start of a new season inevitably marks the start of a new type of work for farmers or fishermen, and in the days when there were still kings they might also mark the time for certain feasts, political assemblies, or when it was time for the cattle raids to start, or time to find his warriors safe and warm housing for the cold winter period. For farmers, as Imbolc brought the spring with it, the festival anticipated the start of the lambing season, and it heralded the time to start ploughing and sowing in the fields. Lugnasad brought the start of the harvest, while Samain heralded its end, ushering in the dark winter months where livestock would be brought to safety – kept on lowland pastures or even taken indoors to sit out the worst of the weather. For fishermen, the festivals would mark the beginning or end to their fishing seasons, and so the quarter days were inextricably linked to not only the rhythm of the year, but to the ebb and flow of how they made their living.
These quarter days didn’t just have a religious or social meaning, they also had a broader legal significance. The quarter days are traditionally times when rents might be due, when work contracts began or ended (or were renewed), or when debts had to be settled. The legal importance of these dates, and their association with the seasons and the farming or fishing calendar, probably had a lot to do with their survival beyond the pre-Christian period. They weren’t just fondly remembered as a good time, when feasting and drinking was had: They went far beyond mere expressions of religion.
Other Festivals?
Besides these four quarter days there are some other festivals that might be observed by Gaelic Polytheists. Not everyone does, and even those who do might not observe all of them – picking and choosing what has meaning to them. The decision is a personal one. For the sake of ease, while we’re talking about these ‘other’ festivals we can collectively refer to them as the minor festivals, to distinguish them from the four main quarter days.
Before we outline what the minor festivals actually are, it’s important to understand that these ones – unlike the four quarter days – are relatively recent. The evidence suggests that they weren’t celebrated by the pre-Christian Gaels themselves, which is why some Gaelic Polytheists don’t bother with them. For the most part, these minor festivals are the result of outside influences, either due to Christianity itself, or thanks to the English (or British – there is a difference!),1 with some Norse influences thrown in as well in some areas.
So these minor festivals are:
Sheelah’s Day – March 18 (Ireland)
Là na Caillich – March 25 (Scotland)
Midsummer – June 24 (mostly Ireland and the Isle of Man)
Tynwald Day or Shenn Laa’l Ean Bashtey – July 5 (Isle of Man)
Là Fhèill Mìcheil or Michaelmas – September 29 (mainly Scotland)
Yule – December 25 (Scotland)
Wren Day – December 26 (mostly Ireland)
Hogmanay/New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day – December 31 into January 1 (most pronounced in Scotland)
The fact that the festivals are heavily localised – popular in one place but not another, or where the same sort of thing is celebrated on a slightly different day between different places – offers us a clue as to their more recent (and non-native) origins here, as is the fact that they have different names depending on where you are.
More than anything, though, it’s the fact that these minor festivals are all centred around the solstices and equinoxes that shows us they haven’t originated with the Gaels themselves. These dates aren’t really significant in our earliest historical sources, from Ireland, but they are significant dates in the English calendar: they are the English quarter days – direct counterparts to the Irish quarter days that were described above, which form our own festival calendar.
The English quarter days carry the same sort of legal significance as the Irish quarter days do, and they also mark the beginning of a season. Because the solstices and equinoxes are solar events that shift in date from year to year, the English chose to simplify matters and used fixed dates for their quarter days, and so they fall on:
Lady Day (March 25)
Midsummer (June 24)
Michaelmas (September 29)
Christmas Day (December 25)
Where the Irish quarter days all fall on the first of the month, which is easy to remember, things are a bit more complicated in the English system. A way to remember the dates is to think about the number of letters in each month: March has five letters, so the spring quarter day falls on the 25th. June has four letters, so Midsummer is on the 24th, while September has nine letters, so the autumnal quarter day is on the 29th. Christmas is pretty easy to remember even if you’re not Christian, so that one pretty much doesn’t need a trick to figure it out!
At some point, thanks to the whole conquering thing the English were so fond of, the system of the English quarter days were introduced into Ireland, with the intention of replacing the Irish ones. Of course, seeing as the English quarter days also coincide with certain festival dates in the Christian calendar, this had some success, but it’s had the curious side-effect of effectively doubling the seasonal celebrations; where Imbolc technically marks the beginning of spring, so does Sheelah’s Day in Ireland, as does Là na Caillich (‘Day of the Cailleach’) in Scotland. This sort of doubling provides us with further evidence that the dates close to the solstices and equinoxes aren’t original festivals to the Gaels.
In some cases, what we see happening isn’t so much a case of the same thing being observed twice, but instead the local celebrations may have shifted from the original date to the new (‘English’) date. In particular, many of the Beltaine traditions in Ireland have since shifted to Midsummer, while in Scotland many of the Lugnasad traditions have shifted to Michaelmas, and so on. In both cases, the shift in dates has meant the festivals have now come to be associated with holy days in the Christian calendar, and this fact in itself probably helped encourage the shift more than any sense that the locals might have wanted to move things to embrace a more English identity or anything like that. In particular, the doubling we see around spring, with Imbolc and then Sheelah’s Day/Là na Caillich being celebrated instead of things just shifting to the equinoctial dates, surely has a lot to do with the fact that Imbolc is itself a significant day in the Gaelic calendar; it’s St. Brigit’s Day, dedicated to one of the most beloved holy figures amongst the Gaels.
In Scotland, the Norse settlers who colonised various parts of the country brought their own traditions with them, which resulted in the adoption of these traditions by the locals. The same sort of thing happened in the Isle of Man, too, and so we often see a curious mix of Norse or English and Gaelic belief being expressed in the places where this sort of cultural syncretism is most pronounced. The tradition of the Yule log in Scotland melded with the Gaelic understanding of the Cailleach, for example, who is often portrayed as a sort of sprit of winter in the more recent Scottish (and some Irish) lore.2
In the Isle of Man, the Midsummer festivities came to be a time for paying the rent to Manannán – the patron of the island. In exchange for a rather modest offering of a bunch of rushes (or a certain type of grass), which was meant to be left at the top or bottom of South Barrule, the people ensured his continued patronage and protection, safeguarding them against foreign invaders.3 In Ireland, meanwhile, the people who lived near Cnoc Áine dedicated their Midsummer celebrations to her.4 Similarly, Ireland and Scotland developed their own spring traditions close to Lady Day; in Scotland, Là na Caillich (‘the Cailleach’s Day,’ falling on the actual date of Lady Day) was said to be the day the Cailleach gave up her efforts at trying to prolong the winter, and halt the onslaught of spring, and it was also meant to mark the end of the stormy period that’s so common at this time of year.5 A similar sort of day was once observed in Ireland, too, though in this case it was dedicated to a figure by the name of Sheelah, and it fell on March 18 – the day after St. Patrick’s Day.6
These festivals obviously came about well into the Christian period, and yet they embraced figures who are obviously pre-Christian in origin. That’s not to say they were still being worshipped as gods at this time, but they were still clearly considered to be powerful in some way or another, capable of influencing the everyday lives of the local population.
So although these festivals may not be exclusively Gaelic (in the cultural sense here, not the language – just to be clear) or pre-Christian in origin, Gaelic Polytheists might observe some or all of these dates for various reasons. In some cases it’s because they want to keep the traditions alive (regardless of their origins), in others it’s because the festival in question has a connection to a certain deity the practitioner has an especially close relationship with. For some, they’re just figuring things out and seeing what works, or sometimes a practitioner might celebrate a certain date because it seems to be the right thing to do on that occasion.
Observances
As far as the four quarter days go, then, Imbolc traditionally marks the start of spring (and thus the end of winter), Beltaine celebrates the start of summer (bidding farewell to spring), Lugnasad celebrates the start of autumn (and the harvest), and Samain celebrates the start of winter, which also marks the ‘official’ end of the harvest, and of course the autumn. These dates tend to be linked to the very first signs or hints that a new season is under way, or else they might only be able to anticipate the changes that will soon come. With the English quarter days, the seasonal shifts that are linked to them are often far more obvious – the balance of the scales, as it were, have already tipped.
The festivals still cast a shadow in Gaelic tradition, and many of them are still observed in some form or another. People in Ireland might put out a May bush at Beltaine, certain towns might still hold the traditional fairs around the time of Lugnasad, and many of the traditions associated with Samain still persist as part of Hallowe’en festivities (though with some slight differences). At Imbolc, the cros Bríde may be made (at school or at home) and then hung up or given to a friend.
All of this means we don’t have to work too hard to figure out how to celebrate the festivals, because there are plenty of survivals (or traditions that have only recently died out, but are well-recorded enough for us to revive them easily) that we can look at and use as a starting point. Some people may even have family traditions that they can continue to observe, but either way there’s a ton of resources we can look to that can help us figure things out.
Unfortunately, some of the most useful, and most commonly recommended books that tend to make it onto book lists can be very difficult to get hold of these days, or they’re very expensive. If you can’t get hold of (or afford) any of the following books, libraries might be able to help you. Archive.org is also a fantastic resource for older works that are no longer in copyright, and more recently the site has started offering books to ‘borrow’ from them. This includes more recent works that are still in copyright, and all you need to do is register an account (it’s free). The search feature is fantastic for research purposes (although it doesn’t always cope well with Gaelic or Irish terms), and I’ve added links to the books I’ve been able to find available there, where applicable, in the list below. New titles are being added regularly, so it’s worth checking in every now and then to see if any other useful books might now be available, too. If all else fails, the limited preview function on Google Books can also help.
Ireland
The Year in Ireland, by Kevin Danaher (1972)
The Rites of Brigid: Goddess and Saint, by Seán Ó Dúinn (2005)
The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of the Harvest, by Máire MacNeill (1962; reprinted 2008)
Cattle Lords & Clansmen, by Nerys Patterson (1994)
Irish Popular Superstitions, by William Wilde (1852)
Rethinking Imbolc, by Mary Jones (2011)
Scotland
Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations (six volumes, but volume I is most useful here), by Alexander Carmichael (1900-1971)
The Silver Bough (four volumes, but volumes two and three are especially useful here, being focused on the festival calendar in particular), by F. Marian McNeill (1957-1968)
Hallowe’en: Its Origin Rites and Ceremonies in the Scottish Tradition, by F. Marian McNeill (unknown binding)
The Gaelic Otherworld, by Ronald Black (2005)
The Popular Superstitions, &c. of the Highlanders of Scotland, by W. G. Stewart (1823)
In The Hebrides, by C. F. G. Cumming (1883)
Isle of Man
Manx Calendar Customs, by C. I. Paton (a series of articles in the Folklore Journal, but an eBook version of the entire collection is available for purchase at low cost) (1941-1942)
The Folklore of the Isle of Man, by A. W. Moore (1891)
Dates
It seems likely that the festivals weren’t originally celebrated on fix dates, mainly because the idea of a set calendar (like we have today) probably wasn’t a thing back in the Iron Age. Even now, the question of dates can get a little complicated because the neopagan Wheel of the Year has introduced a fair bit of confusion (insisting that Imbolc is February 2, for example, conflating it with a different festival, Candlemas).7 More recently, there’s been an increasing insistence that the ‘true’ dates are meant to coincide with a certain ‘degree’ in each of the signs of the zodiac, which – it hopefully shouldn’t need to be said – has nothing to do with the pre-Christian beliefs and practices of the Gaels.
On top of this, however, there are some historical factors that have affected the way in which the festivals may be dated, and the main one we’re talking about here is the change in calendars, from the Julian calendar that was once used, to the Gregorian calendar that’s still in use today. This switch happened in 1752, but a lot of people were resistant to the change and they insisted on sticking with the old style Julian calendar – something that continued on into the nineteenth century.
The adoption of the Gregorian calendar was intended to correct a problem that had arisen: the Julian calendar was relatively simple, but it wasn’t very accurate, and this inaccuracy had caused the Julian calendar to ‘drift’ apart from the solar year. The Gregorian calendar was meant to fix the problem, but in order to do so the ‘drift’ that had already happened needed to be fixed. The Gregorian calendar would keep pace with the solar year in the longterm, but in order to correct the ‘drift’ that had happened, the calendar had to jump ahead eleven days. The last day of the Julian calendar was on Wednesday, 2 September 1752, and then the following day – the first day of the Gregorian calendar – became Thursday, 14 September 1752. A lot of people didn’t like or understand this apparent loss of nearly two weeks (perhaps resenting what they saw as interference by a foreign power, too) so they refused to acknowledge it.
As a result, some people continued to celebrate the festivals according to the Julian calendar – the Old Style (O.S.) date. Others celebrated according to the Gregorian – New Style (N.S.) – date, eleven days later, while some trod a middle ground and acknowledged both dates, just in case. In the Isle of Man, for example, people began to talk about Laa Boaldyn (festivities starting the evening beforehand, so on the eve of April 30, into May first), while Shenn Laa Boaldyn, or ‘Old Beltaine Day,’ fell on May 12. A more relevant example, perhaps, is Tynwald Day – the Isle of Man’s national day of celebration (rather like St. Patrick’s day in Ireland or St. Andrew’s day in Scotland) – which now falls on July 5. Originally, however, it coincided with Midsummer, June 24, but because of the resistance to the Gregorian calendar, people preferred to observe it on the ‘old’ date. In Manx, June 24 is Laa’l Ean Bashtey (‘St. John the Baptist’s Day’) while July 5 may be known as Shenn Laa’l Ean Bashtey (‘Old St. John the Baptist’s Day’).
Even before any of these issues came into play, however, it’s been suggested that some of the festivals may have originally been linked to seasonal changes that made it clear the celebration was now appropriate. One of the things Beltaine traditionally marked was the move to summer pastures on higher ground, for example, where sheep and cattle could access fresh grass. This is a practice known as transhumance, and it was hardly unique to the Gaelic world; many cultures have historically practiced transhumance, and some cultures still do, in fact.
The idea behind this practice was mainly to do with safety, and ensuring a plentiful supply of grass. Moving from one place to another gave the fields a chance to rest, giving the livestock better nutrition. Low-lying ground might provide more shelter and warmer temperatures than higher ground, but space is often more limited. Moving to the summer pastures would offer more food to graze, but the livestock could only go there when the weather was good enough. The higher ground would be more exposed to the elements, and the lambs and calves would be especially susceptible to extremes of cold and wet. As a result, the shift to the summer pastures would have to coincide with whenever the weather allowed. This might broadly coincide with Beltaine, but it wasn’t necessarily always exact; a late summer could have meant that the move had to be put off for weeks or months, and the communal nature of the move (the people tending the livestock would go an live up on the hills too) – and the celebrations involved in the festival itself (huge communal bonfires with feasting and dancing around it) – would probably make it more likely for Beltaine itself to be observed at a more convenient date, when people actually made the journey to the summer pastures. The same idea would therefore apply to Samain, when people were meant to move their livestock back down to the lowland winter pastures; an early winter saw an early move back to the lowlands.
If anything, it makes sense that people might hold off on celebrating the new season until it was actually warranted.8 In a similar vein, the festivals may also have been linked (directly or indirectly) with the life cycles of the animals that were farmed; excavations at certain ritual sites in Ireland have uncovered evidence of periodic feasting, with bones from pigs of a certain age dominating the assemblages. Based on the farming practices of the time, this would indicate the feasting most likely took place in early August, suggesting the remains are evidence of Lugnasad celebrations.9 In turn, this evidence would suggest that if the animals had to reach a certain age before slaughter, then the timing of the celebrations would be at least partly influenced by when it was deemed appropriate to do this.
Another possibility is that the festivals may have been tracked by the phases of the moon, or they may have been linked to the appearance or position of certain constellations or clusters of stars in the night sky. The entrance of an Iron Age ritual centre known as Lismullin I (Co. Meath), for example, is known to have been aligned to the Pleiades star cluster, for example, with Pleiades rising between the four entrance posts on April 1 and September 10 (possibly suggesting some sort of link with the harvest). This star cluster is also represented on the Bronze Age Nebra Sky Disc (found near Nebra, Germany), which suggests that it may have had a wider significance to the prehistoric peoples of Europe.10
References
¹ This video by CGP Grey explains the basics, although some of the terminology used here is rather Anglo-centric. Issues with Northern Ireland aside, some of the terms that are used here like ‘the British Isles’ aren’t universal. In particular, the Republic of Ireland use the name ‘Britain and Ireland’ because ‘the British Isles’ suggests that everything there belongs to Britain (and Ireland fought long and hard for that not to be the case). Whichever name you use, this geographical term also includes the Isle of Man, which is not a part of the UK or Ireland. It is a Crown Dependency, which means it recognises Liz as the head of state, but is otherwise self-governing; the UK parliament of Westminster has nothing to do with the day-to-day goings on of the Isle of Man.
2 See F. Marian McNeill’s The Silver Bough Volume 3 (1961); For the Cailleach’s links to winter, see this story, for example
3 C. I. Paton, ‘Manx Calendar Customs (continued),’ in Folklore Vol. 52, No. 1 (1941), 35-69.
4 David Fitzgerald, ‘Popular Tales of Ireland,‘ in Revue Celtique Volume IV (1880), 186-190.
5 See ‘Lore Concerning the Cailleach Bheur.’
7 As a guess, this is probably due to the fact that the primary people who were involved in the creation of the modern Wheel of the Year – all English – were more familiar with Candlemas (February 2) than Imbolc, which also came to be St. Brigit’s Day (February 1). The latter isn’t as significant outside of Ireland, or areas with a strong Irish connection.
8 Nerys Patterson, Cattle Lords & Clansmen (1994), 137.
9 Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts (1997), 197.
10 Frank Prendergast, ‘The Lismullin Enclosure – A Designed Ritual Space,’ in A. O’Connell (Ed.), Harvesting the Stars: A Pagan Temple at Lismullin, Co. Meath (2013), 155-156.
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