Religion of the Celts

The Celtic of the Protohistoire/Antiquité developed a religious system polytheist, under the authority of an omnipotent sacerdotal class. This religion is gradually dissolved in the culture of the Roman Empire starting from the Ier front century J. - C., except for the Ireland where Celtic civilization with perduré until the evangelization of the island to the Ve century.

Sources and documentation

The Druids having systematically privileged orality, the Celtes did not leave us direct testimonys on their beliefs, their gods and their rites. The three information sources available to the celtologists are testimonys of their neighbors, Greeks and Romans, the vestiges archaeological and the medieval literatures Welsh and Irish.

Direct testimonys

Archeology

Medieval literatures

Gods and the “Other world”

So certain major divine figures are common to the whole of the Celtic world, each cultural surface developed a particular mythology. Beyond local particularisms, one finds the diagram trifonctionnel Indo-Europeans, such as it was introduced by Georges Dumézil.

Welsh mythology

Gallic mythology

Irish mythology

The sacerdotal class

The Celtic Société is a theocratic company whose sacerdotal class is composed of three specializations.

Worships

Rites and sacrifices

As for any religion, the concept of sacrifice is present in the spirituality of the Celts. It is a question of returning crowned (to devote to the divinity) an object, an animal or more rarely an human being. The sacrifice requires a priest sacrificator, obligatorily a druid, an object or a sacrificed being (propiatoire or expiatory) and the assembly. In the case of an animal or of a man, the setting with death is a “withdrawal of world”, therefore an approach of the divine one. Christian-J. Guyonvarc' H distinguishes three types of sacrifices:
  • without bloodshed, by the elements (first class)
  • with bloodshed with use of a weapon (second class)
  • without setting with dead (third class).

Others practical are known to us by the Irish literature:

Religious holidays

The Celtic year breaks up into 2 seasons, one clear and the other sinks. It comprises 4 religious holidays, described by the medieval Irish literature:
  • Samain , which takes place on November 1st of our calendar, corresponds to the beginning the year and of the dark season. It is a festival of passage, transition, it lasts one week, three days before and three days afterwards. It is at the same time the news beginning of the year and the end of that which is completed. It is marked by rites druidic, assemblies, drinking bouts and banquets ritual. It with the characteristic to be open on the Other World (the Sidh of the Irishmen) and thus to support the relationship of the men with the gods. One finds it in Gaulle under the name of Samonios (the word indicates the month which corresponds roughly to November), attested by the Calendrier of Coligny.
  • Imbolc , which takes place is the event on which information is most lacunar. According to the etymology, it is a festival of purification and lustration.
  • Beltaine , which takes place on May 1st, marks a rupture in the year, it is the passage of the dark season at the clear, luminous season. That involves also a change of life since it is the opening of the diurnal activities: begun again hunting, war, raids, conquests for the warriors, beginning of agrarian and pastoral work for the farmers and the stockbreeders.
  • Lugnasad , the “assembly of Lug” takes place it, for the period of harvests. It is the royal festival and more precisely of sovereignty in its function redistributrice of the richnesses. It is a military truce which celebrates peace, the friendship, the abundance and the prosperity of the kingdom.

Places of worships

Sources and bibliography

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