When most people think of the Celtic culture, they see images of the druids performing magic, old castles, and gorgeous, lush green, rolling hills. Well, these things are a part of the Celtic culture, but there is so much more depth to the Celts, most of which is unknown, but in this paper what is known, will be uncovered… The Celts were a dramatic and romantic society. The reason that so little is known about them is because they were a non-literate culture.
The only things that were recorded about them were by classical authors. These authors recorded things about them by hearing of their legends, myths, traditions, etc. Since they were non-literate, only oral tradition preserved their history and culture. The Celts had a love for beautiful things.
So they honored beauty of people, nature, and the arts. They considered vanity normal and admirable, which represented a proper sense of self-worth. This belief is much different than what we believe today, but this doesn’t mean that the Celts were a vain and greedy society. They strongly praised generosity and selflessness. To give open-handedly was the mark of a true hero or heroine.
The Celts impressed the Greeks and Romans with their bold dress and powerful appearance. Generally characterized by classical authors as a people with fair hair, of red or gold, and fair complexions, (although the people of the British Isles were described as small and dark-haired) most Celtic women apparently stood taller than the average Roman citizen. Celtic women, upon reaching maturity, adopted a complex braided style for their hair, and wore dyed and embroidered dresses. Plaids, or wrapped woven cloaks, were common for men and women alike, and gold and silver torques and arm rills, as well as rings, adorned wealthy Celts.
The Essay on Celtic and Germanic Cultures
Most of our knowledge of early Celtic culture comes from Latin historians and from an extensive body of early Irish texts composed between 700 and 1000 AD. These include native law texts as well as heroic prose narratives and intricately crafted rhymed verse in hundreds of different meters. There are a few early texts from Celtic Wales as well, but paradoxically most of the surviving Welsh stories ...
Brooches that held closed the openings of dresses and plaids were another common feature of Celtic dress. Gaelic men commonly spiked their hair and bleached it to an almost white color with chalky water, and wore their beards long, while the Bretons and Picts tattooed their arms and faces with blue. Many Danish and English bogs have shown archeological evidence of cloth and dress, and Roman historians such as Tacitus also document some of the customs of everyday Celtic life. These things show that the Celts were a society that was very sophisticated. The Celts occupied land in modern day Eastern Europe, Greece, Spain, Northern Italy, Western Europe, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. They occupied these lands mostly from 400 to 200 B.
C. Since this was such a large area of land, they spoke different languages. North of the Alps and Pyrenees was the area known as Celtic. In this area they spoke Gaulish.
In Spain, Celt iberian was spoken. British and Pictish was spoken in Britain. In Ireland, Western Scotland, and the Isle of Man they spoke Gaelic. The Celtic people lived very healthy lives, considering the time period that they lived in. In the time that the Celts were living, they had a long lifespan. Most Celts lived to be about 40 years old.
This was considered a long lifetime back then. One probable reason of this was that the Celts learned to extract salt from the earth in about 1000 B. C. This enabled them to preserve meat and fish, which kept them healthy all year round.
Along coastal areas the Celts were sailors, fishermen, and traders. Inland, they were farmers and miners. Celtic people were usually polytheistic and they believed in many gods and goddesses. They practiced a religion that is similar to modern day Wicca. Their religion honored a mother goddess and a father god. They believed that the mother goddess and father god created the other gods and goddesses and also created the Celtic people.
A basic tenet in the Celtic religion was, ‘an harm none, do what ye will.’ This means to not harm anything, but do what you want to. The Celts religion was based upon magic and worshiping the earth. In the Celtic religion, women were of equal or greater importance than men. By now, if you read closely, you know that the Celts were a very interesting culture. I think that when you will imagine the Celts, you see a more detailed representation of the Celtic culture. So now, the old castles, lush green, rolling hills, and druids performing magic, seem more detailed and intricate than they were before.
The Essay on Ancient Celtic Religion
When thinking of Celtic religion, the first thing that comes to ones mind ... -paganism follows the same basic form, with a God and a Goddess being worshipped, as well as a plethora of ... (each stone generally of very large size) enclosing an area of from twenty feet to thirty yards in diameter, ... were first led to profess Christianity. The pagan religion of the Celts still lives on in modern times, and is ...
So now when you think of the Celts, what do you think of?
