Celtic Moment

Scottish Games in Pleasanton draws heavy lifters from around the world
Athletes say more than strength required to excel at Games events.

Read more on San Jose Mercury News

Rural economy hit particularly hard by crisis, forum hears
IRELAND’S RURAL economy was particularly exposed to the economic crisis due to the large number of men working in the construction and transport sectors, a conference in Cork has heard.

Read more on The Irish Times

Census Bureau News — Facts for Features — Halloween, Oct. 31, 2010
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The observance of Halloween, which dates back to Celtic rituals thousands of years ago, has long been associated with images of witches, ghosts and vampires. Over the years, Halloween customs and rituals have changed dramatically. Today, Halloween is celebrated many different ways, including wearing costumes, children trick or treating, carving …

Read more on PR Newswire via Yahoo! News

Halloween is a day which has originated from ancient Celtic festival of ‘Samhain’ which means ‘summer’s end’. This day is celebrated on 31st November every year. In addition, in Christian belief, this particular day is celebrated as All Saints’ Day too.

The term Halloween is a combination of two words All ‘Hallows’ ‘Even-ing’ derived from Old English.

It is believed, that on this day, the line between this world and underworld becomes permeable. Therefore, people pay respect to spirits of their ancestors and wear costumes to keep away bad sprits. In addition, this secular celebration of strong feelings and guise happens to be a joyful day for kids too.

As sun sets, Halloween fervor begins with children disguising as their favorite scary character, and continue the customary celebration of ‘trick-or-treating’. Going house to house, they get treats such as candy or sometimes money.

To mark this special eve of murky spell, it is best to offer your beloveds, some enthralling and awe-inspiring, flourishing green-hued pendants. Angara’s exclusive collection of intense and cryptic green hued pendant is a great choice amongst people during the season of Halloween.

Highest quality emerald gemstones are picked to set into various, meticulously designed artful conceptions within white and yellow gold.

An exquisite emerald pendant in white gold with diamond will create a mood for that midnight party with friends as you will wander through the crowd. Mesmerizing heart brilliant cut emerald, and airy clear diamond, brings forth the strength of the bond between you and the sacred spirits of your ancestors.

This truly exceptional emerald interlinked trillion pendant in yellow gold, gives a choice to adorn this lush-colored specimen of youth with sun-kissed yellow gold. This uniquely trance-like supple looking pendant would really match, especially with that Jack-o-Lantern costume of yours or with any kind of attire sported.

Whether you are a career woman, a lovely homemaker, or a young collegiate, emerald’s refreshing hue suits everybody with everything.

Take for example, this designer selection of emerald silver heart pendant. This exclusive choice proves to be an effective head turner, buy this compliment magnet, and become a subject of praise amongst friends and family.

Any designs you choose from the carefully assorted array of these aesthetic emerald pendants, they would soothe your senses and satisfy your style quotient. Tagged as best sellers by customers themselves, these tender-looking emerald pendants would always win you adulations.

Possess these magnificently naive and innocent looking emerald pendants with nature’s eye soothing green hue to win adulations and add an enticing colored gemstone in your jewelry.

I’m making a video about Halloween and I need a song with a Celtic feel about the holiday, or if not about at least suitable.
Any suggestions?

Many years ago in the 1920′s my great Aunt Hilda ( An ex Headmistress and Suffragette ) traced our family tree back to the Kings and Queens of England from the 7th Century. This basically means I am related to most of the British Royal Family going back 1500 years. This has made me a great fan of English Traditions and British history and the English story of Halloween.

 

The festival of “All Hallows Eve” or the more ancient named “Samhain” celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic Briton’s New Year”. Halloween and other pagan festivals were celebrated by the Celtic Briton and Irish Tribes 2,000 years ago and over the centuries the festivals were renamed by the Catholic Church.

The ancient Celtic Britons believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Sunset on Samhain is the beginning of the Celtic New Year. The old year has passed, the harvest has been gathered, cattle and sheep have been brought in from the fields, and the leaves have fallen from the trees. The earth slowly begins to die around us.

This is a good time for us to look at wrapping up the old and preparing for the new in our lives. Think about the things you did in the last twelve months. Have you left anything unresolved? If so, now is the time to wrap things up. Once you’ve gotten all that unfinished stuff cleared away, and out of your life, then you can begin looking towards the next year.

Another common practice was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.

The name ‘Halloween’ and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English mists of time.

Halloween is not celebrated in all countries and regions of the world, and among those that do the traditions and importance of the celebration vary significantly. When the English first arrived in Colonial America and the many other countries of the Commonwealth they brought with them the “All Hallows Eve” Celebration with the associated traditions ( Like Apple Dipping and Pumpkins ). During the following centuries we English had started to lose the traditions of Halloween ( Except by the Traditional Pagan followers ) until wartime Britain, when many American GI’s based in England re-introduced the Halloween Celebrations to us British.

Halloween in the United States has had a significant impact on how the holiday is observed in other nations. This larger American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as South America, Europe, to Japan under the auspices of the Japanese Biscuit Association, and other parts of East Asia.

As so many Famous events happened and were created in England and the rest of the British Isles over the centuries, I thought it would be a good idea to tell the various stories in my various articles of the many English and British historical Icons from the Anglo Saxon times to present day England’s current history.

As so many Famous events happened and Sports were created in England and the rest of the British Isles over the centuries, I thought it would be a good idea to tell the various stories in my various articles of the many English and British Icons from the Anglo Saxon times to the present day England.

 

Please visit my Funny Animal Art Prints Collection @ http://www.fabprints.com

 

My other website is called Directory of British Icons: http://fabprints.webs.com

To visit the list and links to my other Blogg articles: http://bloggs.resourcez.com

The Chinese call Britain The Island of Hero’s which I think sums up what we British are all about.

Copyright © 2010 Paul Hussey. All Rights Reserved.