Do druids celebrate Christmas?

Druids, the priestly class in ancient Celtic

ancient Celtic

Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany; also called the Celtic nations. These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent.

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Celts - Wikipedia

society, celebrated the festival of Alban Arthuan (also known as Yule) at the time of the Winter solstice. It was on this day that they ceremonially gathered mistletoe from oak trees.

What is the Druid equivalent of Christmas?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word 'yule' is derived from 'geól', an Old Norse word for Christmas festivities. 'Yule' is how Druids and Pagans have long referred to the winter solstice, even if most of us associate it more with festive chocolate logs.

Was Christmas a Celtic holiday?

Origins of Celtic Christmas

Christmas has been marked in Ireland since St. Patrick brought Christianity to the island in the fifth century. Over the centuries, pagan Celtic customs merged with Christianity to produce some uniquely Celtic Christmas traditions for the winter festival.

What do Celts call Christmas?

In the Celtic times, druids observed the festival of Alban Arthan (also known as Yule) at the time of Winter solstice. They gathered mistletoe from oak trees, in an attempt to ward off evil spirits and grant them good luck.

How do Druids celebrate holidays?

SSO Theories EP8: How Do The Druids Celebrate Xmas?

What is the Druid religion?

Druids were concerned with the natural world and its powers, and considered trees sacred, particularly the oak. Druidism can be described as a shamanic religion, as it relied on a combination of contact with the spirit world and holistic medicines to treat (and sometimes cause) illnesses.

Was Christmas a pagan?

Now, as Christmas applies to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas is decidedly not pagan. However, there are some differences of opinion when it comes to the selection of day of celebration. On the Roman calendar, December 25 was the date of the winter solstice (December 21 on the modern calendar).

What is the pagan version of Christmas?

Christmas owes its roots to the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which was a pagan festival which was celebrated from December 17-25 each year. This custom was altered and absorbed into Christmas, and this allowed early Christians to gradually erase these old pagan holidays.

Was December 25th a pagan holiday?

Though December 25 is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the date itself and several of the customs we've come to associate with Christmas actually evolved from pagan traditions celebrating the winter solstice.

How do Celtic pagans celebrate Christmas?

Ancient Irish traditions now recognisable in the ways Christmas is celebrated include decorating doors with holly and ivy wreaths, which were hung outside the house in Celtic times to welcome visitors and ward off evil spirits, and the ritual of hanging mistletoe, which derives from Celtic priests or druids.

What are the four pagan festivals?

Four of the festivals have Celtic origins and are known by their Celtic names, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.

Did the Christmas tree come from the Druids?

Before then, the Druids worshipped oak trees as their idol. But English Benedictine monk St. Boniface, a man who devoted his life to converting pagans, offered the Druids a triangular-shaped balsam fir tree as a symbol of the Trinity, and it went on to replace their beloved oaks.

Do Druids celebrate winter solstice?

Crowds have gathered at Stonehenge to mark the winter solstice and witness the sunrise after the longest night of the year.

What was Jesus actual birthday?

The common Christian traditional dating of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 A.D., although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded.

What pagan celebration did Christmas replace?

Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas.

Is Thanksgiving a pagan holiday?

While Thanksgiving is not tied to any one specific religion, it's traditions are quite similar to a number of ancient Pagan harvest celebrations. For example, in ancient Rome they celebrated the holiday of Cerelia, which honored the harvest goddess of grain called Ceres.

What religion does not celebrate pagan holidays?

Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate most holidays or events that honour people who aren't Jesus. That includes birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Hallowe'en. They also don't celebrate religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter in the belief that these customs have pagan origins.

Does the Bible mention Christmas?

Christmas Is Not Supported By Scripture

One of the first things you will notice when studying Scripture is that the word “Christmas” is not mentioned in any verse, chapter, or book of the Bible. None of Jesus' disciples, nor any of His apostles attempted to celebrate the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior.

Who started Christmas?

The first recorded incidence of Christmas being celebrated actually dates all the way back to the Roman Empire in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine – so technically the Romans invented it, although there's no specific person who is credited with having done so.

Do druids worship trees?

The Druids and Oak Trees

The ancient Druids of the British Isles were known to worship oak trees themselves. They held their sacred rituals in groves of oak trees and ate the acorns that fell from the trees, hoping to see into the future.

What language did druids speak?

Druidic was actually a language subgroup composed of two distinct but similar languages. The vast majority of druids spoke Drueidan; those from the Moonshaes spoke a language called Daelic.

Are druids evil?

Druids are not evil. Their actions may be, but the way they think is the main determinant of how they behave, which usually matches a common goal for most druids.

What are the 8 Druid festivals?

Is Stonehenge a Druid?

Stonehenge may have served as a burial site, meeting place, solar calendar or sacred ritual, but it wasn't built as a Druid temple.