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JUIY/AUGUST 2000
Ancient Seat of Irish Power The Main Festivals Suggested for New Capital of the CeUic Year
LIN - The Irish Parliament of neutrally-placed capitals, is future. Both should be together in /
DUBLIN - The Irish Parliament Trust, a party-neutral, Cambridge based, peace research charity has suggested that a new Irish capital should be set up in the Boyne Valley.
Paddy McGarvey, the 72-year-old former journalist from Armagh, who founded the trust in 1986, said the area around Trim was the "obvious site for Ireland's future shared capital."
He said, "The key to the success
of neutrally-placed capitals, is that minorities and majorities have no fear of each other when the centre of power is not in either camp. That is why Nigeria abandoned Lagos to build a new neutral capital in the bush."
McGarvey described the new parliament in Northern Ireland as "a constitutional cul-de-sac." He said, "Bottling up all Ireland's ills into one parliament while the other one just sits on its hands cannot augur well for a long-term
future. Both should be together in the one place, sharing voluntary committees to rule Ireland from one place.
"Everything that we are in Ireland originates in the Boyne Valley and Trim radiates a return to power from all its Twelfth Century ruined grandeur," he added.
Trim, a small market town 29 miles north-west of Dublin, is capital of County Meath and an ancient seat of the Irish parliament. - The Irish News
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PRACTICE
The Celtic calendar is a mandala represented by four of eight divisions. The four solar events take the form of a cross and are represented by the Winter Solstice on December 21 (the shortest day/longest night of the year), Spring Equinox on March 21 (equal day/night), Summer Solstice on June 21 (the longest day/shortest night of the year) and Autumn Equinox on September 23 (equal day/night).
The four main fire festivals of the Celtic year occur at the cross-quarter days, exactly between the solstices and equinoxes. Each date has a relevance in the agricultural cycle. Bonfires are still lit in Ireland to celebrate the "oneness" with nature. The festivals are: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasadh.
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SAMHAIN
Samhain is an important fire festival which is celebrated on the evening of October 31 and throughout the next day. Old fires are extinguished and are then ceremonially relit from a sacred flame offered by the Druids.
Samhain also marked the beginning of the new year but it is thought that the festival was then linked with the pastoral or religious cycle rather than the solar and therefor the agricultural year.
The new year coincided with the time when herds were brought in from the fields and selected for breeding or slaughter. Samhain is also the festival of the dead.
At the end of the year the souls of the departed returned to the land of the living and warmed themselves at the hearths of their former homes. Less friendly spirits were also released and had to expelled or appeased with sacrifice.
IMBOLC
Imbolc is the second of the Celtic seasonal festivals, covering the months of February, March, and April. The main rituals are carried out on the first of February and have strong links and associations with fertility and birth.
In religious terms, it is linked the lambing season and the time when ewes come into milk.The festival is also associated with the triple Goddess Brigid. In her different aspects, she has power in the areas of healing, ironworking, and poetry. Poets regarded her as the root of literary inspiration and her intervention was frequently sought by mothers in childbirth.
In Ireland she was much revered by the "Filidh" or Sages, who recognized her gift of prophecy. The cult of Brigid is thought to be connected with the worship of the British Goddess "Brigantia," who also gave her name to the northern tribe of the "Brigantes," and of course to "Brigantia" Iron Age re-enactment
BELTAINE
The most well known of the great Celtic festivals, Beltaine is celebrated on May 1 and coincided with the start of summer and the opening of the pasture to livestock. The name comes from "Bel-tinne" (The fires of Bel), this suggests that the festival is associated with the God Belenus.
The latter is a Gaulish sun God, worshiped under many different guises throughout the Ancient world. The cursed Romans likened him to Apollo, and classical authors linked him with shines in Provence, Burgundy and northern Italy.
His memory also survives in a host of proper names among them "Cymbeline" (or Cunobelin, hound of Belenus) immortalized by the great bard Shakespeare in a play of the same name. Billingsgate in London also derives its name from this source.
Beltaine is a fire festival, which is marked with bonfires on hilltops and at other sacred places. In Ireland, it was customary to drive cattle between two Druidic fires, to gain protection from disease.
Beltaine is the most enduring of the Celtic festivals, in parts of Scotland it survived well into the Eighteenth Century, and gave its name to one of the old quarter-days. Along with the other festivals it is now enjoying a revival among the youth of today. The evening preceding the festival is time of great magic known as "the time between times" when gates to the otherworld was open and men could enter the realms of the dead and spirits roamed abroad.
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LUGHNASADH
Lughnasadh is a summer festival, marking the start of the final quarter of the Celtic year. It is celebrated on August the 1 and appears to be linked to the gathering in of the harvest. This connection is maintained in the Christian feast of Lammas (Loaf Mass) which superseded it.
The Pagan festival owes its origins to Lugh, a sun God whose name means "The Shining One." According to legend, he established a series of funeral games in honour of his foster mother, an agricultural Goddess called Tailtu, who had died after clearing the forest of Breg.
He was also credited with many powers. In Irish tradition, he was revered both as a formidable warrior and a master magician. Lugh aided Cu-Chulainn in his struggles against the Connacht forces and helped the craft Gods to forge their magic weapons. Later, his craftsman's role became more emphasized and he was known as Lugh Chromain("Little stooping Lugh") or, in its anglicized form, the prototype of the Leprechaun.
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