Celtic Myth Podshow's Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-29T08:57:05ZCeltic Myth Podshowhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/CelticMythPodshowhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/68530938?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?user=0ks94vao77vs3&xn_auth=noIrish Christmas Facts -- Traditions of the Celtic Holiday Seasontag:thewildgeese.irish,2013-12-04:6442157:BlogPost:658732013-12-04T12:30:00.000ZCeltic Myth Podshowhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/CelticMythPodshow
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<p><span><strong><span class="font-size-5">C</span>hristmas whitewashing: Around Christmastime, you’ll still find the odd farm building</strong> out in the Irish countryside that looks like it’s just been whitewashed. Long ago, farm</span><span class="text_exposed_show"> families cleaned and then whitewashed every building on the farm in December. They were covered in…</span></p>
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<p><span><strong><span class="font-size-5">C</span>hristmas whitewashing: Around Christmastime, you’ll still find the odd farm building</strong> out in the Irish countryside that looks like it’s just been whitewashed. Long ago, farm</span><span class="text_exposed_show"> families cleaned and then whitewashed every building on the farm in December. They were covered in white paint or limewash, to symbolically purify them for the coming of the saviour. The tradition traces back thousands of years, not just through Celtic culture, but through other Central European cultures as well.<br/> <br/>
<strong>Before Christmas trees:</strong> Having an evergreen-type Christmas tree is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland. Years ago, whole families went out to find holly bushes and ivy to decorate the mantelpiece and other parts of the house. Finding a holly bush with lots of berries was considered a harbinger of good luck in the coming year. Holly was also used because it allowed poor people to decorate their homes in the same way as those who were better off. The bush was so common in Ireland in winter there was plenty for everyone.<br/>
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<strong>"Women's Christmas,"</strong> (<span>Nollaig na mBan) </span>on January 6th (also known as "Little Christmas"), is a traditional day for Irish women to leave their housework behind and go out with each other to have fun. It's a very old holiday, kept alive today by a few enthusiastic Irish ladies.<br/>
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<strong>It’s considered bad luck</strong> to take down holiday decorations before "Women's Christmas" on January 6th.<br/>
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<strong>A welcoming candle:</strong> A Christmas candle in the window, still popular in Ireland and also in the U.S.A., was long displayed as a symbol of hospitality (though Ireland never had a rule quite as strident as Scotland’s “first footing,” the New Year’s tradition dictating that one had to take in and lavishly entertain the very first person to enter one’s home after midnight). <br/>
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Window candles in Ireland were a symbol that the homeowner would welcome the Holy Family – unlike the inn keeper in Bethlehem who bore the guilt of having turned them away. During times of intolerance for Catholicism in Ireland, window candles also were meant to announce that it was safe to say mass in a home.<br/>
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<strong>Leaving a mince pie and a bottle of Guinness out</strong> on Christmas Eve was once popular in Ireland. It was meant to be a snack for Santa Claus.<br/>
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<strong>Ancient Celts believed that mistletoe</strong> had tremendous healing powers. Christians saw it as such a strong symbol of paganism, in fact, that they banned it until the so-called “revival of Christmas” in the Victorian era.<br/>
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<strong>On December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception,</strong> virtually all schools in Ireland are closed for the day. It is traditionally the nation's number one day for Christmas shopping.<br/>
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<strong>Pantomimes</strong> are still performed by small groups of amateurs and professional actors alike in the days following Christmas. Irish “pantos” are humorous productions of Cinderella, Snow White and other familiar fairytales. In them, men frequently play the part of women and vice versa. Generally, there’s a great deal of singing and dancing, with jokes making fun of eminent politicians or celebrities thrown in.<br/>
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<strong>Children in Ireland are accustomed to finding presents left by Santa in their bedrooms</strong>, often in a sack at the foot of the bed. An occasional big gift may be left under the Christmas tree, but it’s usually unwrapped.<br/>
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<strong>The Irish Christmas Tree Growers association,</strong> which has a goal of fostering the production of "real" Christmas trees in Ireland, has about 100 members. Those of us who've virtually never seen a tree in Ireland are interested to know that the Christmas tree group is actually an outgrowth of the Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA).<br/>
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<strong>Christmas' Roman origin? "Saturnalia,"</strong> a Roman feast dedicated to the god Saturn, was celebrated on December 17th in pre-Christian times. Some historians believe the holiday was adopted by Christians throughout Europe in the fourth century, and turned into a commemoration of Christ’s birth. <br/>
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<strong>The date was changed to December 25th</strong> to coincide with the winter solstice on the Roman or "Julian" calendar. A number of old pagan holidays were "Christianized" in this way (All Hallows day is another), because the Church wanted to adopt holidays people were already celebrating widely. A Roman practice of cutting down an evergreen tree on Saturnalia may be the origin of the modern day Christmas tree.<br/>
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<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.com/group/the-wild-geese-presents-an-irish-christmas/page/2014-irish-christmas-headquarters" target="_self"><img width="375" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84702500?profile=RESIZE_480x480" class="align-center" width="375"/></a></p>Saint Stephen's Day and the Wren Boystag:thewildgeese.irish,2013-12-03:6442157:BlogPost:657802013-12-03T10:00:00.000ZCeltic Myth Podshowhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/CelticMythPodshow
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<p><span class="userContent">Celtic myth had it that the robin that was suppose to represent the New Year killed the wren which represented the Old Year, During this time Wren Boys blacken their faces and go from house to house asking for money to b<span class="text_exposed_show">ury the wren. The money they collect is used to buy food and drink for the "wren dance" held…</span></span></p>
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<p><span class="userContent">Celtic myth had it that the robin that was suppose to represent the New Year killed the wren which represented the Old Year, During this time Wren Boys blacken their faces and go from house to house asking for money to b<span class="text_exposed_show">ury the wren. The money they collect is used to buy food and drink for the "wren dance" held on this night.<br/> <br/> St. Stephen's Day honours the first Christian martyr, stoned to death shortly after the Crucifixion.<br/> <br/> St. Stephen's Day is a national holiday in Ireland, but, the celebrations have little connection to the Saint.<br/> <br/> In Ireland, St. Stephen's Day is the day for "Hunting the Wren" or "Going on the Wren." Originally, groups of small boys would hunt for a wren, and then chase the bird until they either have caught it or it has died from exhaustion. The dead bird was tied to the top of a pole or holly bush, which was decorated with ribbons or colou<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84702431?profile=original" target="_self"><span>red paper.</span></a><br/> Early in the morning of St. Stephen's Day, the wren was carried from house to house by the boys, who wore straw masks or blackened their faces with burnt cork, and dressed in old clothes. At each house, the boys sing the Wren Boys' song. Such as:<br/> <br/> The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,<br/> On St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,<br/> Although he is little, his family is great,<br/> I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.<br/> <br/> My box would speak, if it had but a tongue,<br/> And two or three shillings, would do it not wrong,<br/> Sing holly, sing ivy--sing ivy, sing holly,<br/> A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy.<br/> <br/> And if you draw it of the best,<br/> I hope in heaven your soul will rest;<br/> But if you draw it of the small,<br/> It won't agree with these wren boys at all.<br/> <br/> Sometimes those who gave money were given a feather from the wren for good luck. The money collected by the Wren Boys was used to hold a dance for the whole village.<br/> <br/> There are different legends about the origin of this custom. One is that St. Stephen, hiding from his enemies in a bush, was betrayed by a chattering wren. The wren, like St. Stephen, should be hunted down and stoned to death. Another legend holds that during the Viking raids of the 700's, Irish soldiers were betrayed by a wren as they were sneaking up on a Viking camp in the dead of night. A wren began to eat breadcrumbs left on the head of a drum, and the rat-a-tat-tat of its beak woke the drummer, who sounded the alarm and woke the camp, leading to the defeat of the Irish soldiers and the continuing persecution of the wren.</span></span></p>Tara: Ireland’s Royal Board Game – A Reviewtag:thewildgeese.irish,2013-11-28:6442157:BlogPost:652052013-11-28T11:00:00.000ZCeltic Myth Podshowhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/CelticMythPodshow
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<p><span>As we know from the ancient Celtic legends, our ancestors were very fond of a board game named </span><em><strong>F</strong><strong>idhcell</strong> </em><span>by the Irish and </span><em><strong>Gwyddbvyll</strong></em> <span>by the Welsh. It was like chess, often being proclaimed as one of the precursors of our modern chess game, and was reportedly…</span></p>
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<p><span>As we know from the ancient Celtic legends, our ancestors were very fond of a board game named </span><em><strong>F</strong><strong>idhcell</strong> </em><span>by the Irish and </span><em><strong>Gwyddbvyll</strong></em> <span>by the Welsh. It was like chess, often being proclaimed as one of the precursors of our modern chess game, and was reportedly played by Kings and Gods alike. </span><strong>Tara: Ireland’s Royal Board Game</strong><span> has many </span><em>fidchell</em><span>-like qualities and it would be easy to see early kings or nobles enjoying the strategic aspects of this game as they fought for territory on the board, much as they might on the field of war.</span></p>
<p><span><span>The game itself is a superb 2-player game with many rules variants found both with the game and on the supporting </span><a title="Tailten Games and the Tara Board Game" href="http://www.tailtengames.com/index.html" target="_blank">website</a><span> (which is also where you’ll find superb tutorial videos). The game was initially developed in 2004 and has solidified itself over the intervening years – with </span><em><strong>Murray Heasman</strong></em><span>, the developer of the game, providing us with Rules expansions, revisions and continual monitoring.</span></span></p>
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<p><span>It is beautifully presented, and as the game unfolds areas of interlacing Celtic knot-work begin to stretch out across the board and tease the eye as you search for your next move. Although there is a rules variant, that allows young children to happily play and enjoy the beauty of the game, its real strength lies in its strategical aspects. The beautiful simplicity of the game, comparable to chess in many ways and perhaps more so to the ancient Japanese game of ‘</span><strong>Go</strong><span>‘, reveals its strengths as two rival minds inter-lock and compete in battle for territory across the board.</span></p>
<p><span><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84702568?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84702568?profile=original" class="align-left" width="370"/></a>The game is played with ‘</span><em><strong>Forts</strong></em><span>‘ and ‘</span><em><strong>Bridges</strong></em><span>‘ – each a visual reminder of the hill-forts and stone bridges of the beautiful landscape around Tara from which the game takes its name – and ‘</span><em><strong>Kings</strong></em><span>‘ that dwell within the ‘</span><em>Forts</em><span>‘. Using the single set of pieces that comes with the game five different games can be played: </span><strong>Sacred Hill</strong><span>,</span><strong>High Kings of Tara</strong><span>, </span><strong>Four Treasures</strong><span>, </span><strong>Poisoned Chalice</strong><span> and the </span><strong>Stone of Destiny</strong><span>. Murray tells us that the idea and later the name of the game came from the twin ring-forts at the top of the Hill of Tara and it is easy to see how his inspiration went on to produce this award-winning game.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>The beautifully illustrated board is printed onto cardboard but the pieces themselves are built of an impact-resistant plastic and feel quite solid to handle and play with. </span><a title="Tailten Games" href="http://www.tailtengames.com/" target="_blank">Tailten Games</a><span>, the producers of the game – the company itself named after the Royal Games instituted by the God Lugh in honour of his foster-mother Tailtiu and later the town, Teltown in Co. Meath – even produce a luxurious, deluxe ‘</span><em>Collector’s Edition</em><span>‘ version of the board which is made of beautifully hand-crafted crushed stone.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>To read more visit our website at : <a href="http://celticmythpodshow.com/blog/tara-irelands-royal-board-game-a-review/" target="_blank">Celtic Myth Podshow</a><a href="http://celticmythpodshow.com/blog/tara-irelands-royal-board-game-a-review/"><br/></a></span></span></span></p>
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