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Prehistoric stone row - or collapsed modern wall?
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Rune
288 posts

Re: a whinger writes
Mar 15, 2005, 11:23
<i>Anyway, I am not necessarily refering to the old Tain's or myths, but to contemporary folk custom that certainly is not Xtian and obviously predates Xtianity. How Christian is it to make offerings to trees, or climb hills bearfoot, or ask a well/spring for help? How Christian is it to hold a festival on a hilltop at a prehistoric cairn to ask for a good harvest? Until you look into early Irish Christianity you can't understand what it was about. It was in no way close to the Roman stuff most peopel equate it to. In making this comparison people are guilty of the one thing this thread is trying to avoid - placing modern values on something the know nothing of.</i>

In Ireland, the earliest Christians blended in with the local religion/customs and slowly Christian names were given to local deities, yet the local customs and beliefs were incorporated into Christianity and encouraged and many continued until very recent times as 4W has outlined.

Whereas, in England and some parts of Scotland, anything associated with pre-Christianity was labelled as the work of the Devil by the Christian Church and any association with it was heresy/witchcraft, etc. People were outcast or persecuted for associating with the ancient places or carrying on ancient customs and this attitude is still current in some places in England today.

Whilst this isn't about an ancient stone it serves to illustrate an attitude currently displayed in some parts of England.
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=187734

You can't look at the Irish sites and their ideas of sacredness with an English mindset, it just doesn't work.

Rune
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Re: a whinger writes (FourWinds)		 Replies:
Re: a whinger writes (FourWinds)
Re: a whinger writes (nigelswift)
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