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Celtic paganism, as practised by the ancient Celts, is a descendant of Proto-Celtic paganism, itself derived from Proto-Indo-European paganism.Many deities in Celtic mythologies have cognates in other Indo-European mythologies, such as Celtic Brigantia with Roman Aurora, Vedic Ushas, and Norse Aurvandill; Welsh Arianrhod with Greek Selene, Baltic Mėnuo, and Slavic Myesyats; and Irish Danu ...
The Irish were previously pagans who had many gods, venerated their ancestors and believed in an Otherworld. Their four yearly festivals – Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasa – continued to be celebrated into modern times. The Gaels have a strong oral tradition, traditionally maintained by shanachies.
More tentatively, links can be made between ancient Celtic deities and figures in early medieval Irish and Welsh literature, although all these works were produced well after Christianization. The locus classicus for the Celtic gods of Gaul is the passage in Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico ( The Gallic War , 52–51 BC) in which ...
The Celtic god Sucellus. Though the Celtic world at its height covered much of western and central Europe, it was not politically unified, nor was there any substantial central source of cultural influence or homogeneity; as a result, there was a great deal of variation in local practices of Celtic religion (although certain motifs, for example, the god Lugh, appear to have diffused throughout ...
Barry Cunliffe says the underlying structure in Irish myth was a dualism between the male tribal god and the female goddess of the land. [188] The Dagda seems to have been the chief god and the Morrígan his consort, each of whom had other names. [ 188 ]
Donn is portrayed as a god of the dead and ancestor of the Gaels. Tech Duinn is commonly identified with Bull Rock , an islet off the west coast of Ireland which resembles a portal tomb . [ 9 ] In Ireland there was a belief that the souls of the dead departed westwards over the sea with the setting sun, [ 10 ] westward also being the direction ...
Irish goddesses or Otherworldly women are usually connected to the land, the waters, and sovereignty, and are often seen as the oldest ancestors of the people in the region or nation. They are maternal figures caring for the earth itself as well as their descendants, but also fierce defenders, teachers and warriors.
The Irish word fir means "men" and the word bolg/bolc can mean a belly, bag, sack, bellows, and so forth. Kuno Meyer and R. A. Stewart Macalister argue that the name comes from the term Fir i mBolgaib , meaning " breeches wearers", literally "men in (baggy) breeches", which could be interpreted as a term of contempt for the "lower orders".