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Pagan Christianity?
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hotaire
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Re: Pagan Christianity?
Oct 21, 2009, 18:30
Branwen wrote :

There's some doubt as to whether these were just the four main ones which had law court sessions attached to them too, and the other festivals weren't mentioned by early christian chroniclers as being vulgar pagan folk festivals.

We do have hints from the old Anglo-Saxon pagan year. These are recorded by Bede in 'De Temporum Ratione' (c.725). To be more precise, Bede listed the old months, but, in giving the meaning of their names, he suggested that most of them had a religious significance. These were :

Guili (Yule, which corresponded roughly to our December and January, and, of course, the winter solstice).
Solmonath (the month of cakes, reflecting the blessing of fields by placing a loaf or cake in the first furrow).
Hretha (a goddess, corresponding to our March).
Eostre (a goddess, corresponding to our April).
Thrimilci (our May, when cows had to be milked three times a day) .
Litha (literally ‘moon’, corresponding to our June and July, thus balancing the two-month ‘month’ at winter solstice).
Weodmonath (our August, the month of weeds)
Halegmonath (literally ‘holy month’, corresponding to our September, and incorporating the Autumn equinox)
Wintirfyllith (literally, ‘winter full moon’, corresponding to our October).
Blotmonath (the month of sacrifices, corresponding to our November, and referring to the killing off of all but breeding stock and storing them for winter, with the accompanying religious sacrifice).

Two of these – Litha and Wintirfyllith – definitely refer to lunar events, and, given the two-month status of the two solstice months, it seems likely that Guili refers to the solstice full moon as well. Two others – Hretha and Eostre – are named directly after goddesses. Solmonath refers to the blessing of fields, Halegmonath to either the solar or lunar Autumn equinox, and Blotmonath to the token sacrifice of stored up food. So eight out of the ten months have some religious significance.

If Anglo-Saxon and ‘Celtic’ pagan religions bore any similarity whatsoever, then it tends to back Branwen’s suspicion that there were more than the four main ‘Celtic’ festivals we know about. And we have to suspect she’s right that early British Christian writers ignored them because they didn’t agree with them.

(Note : when I say an Anglo-Saxon month corresponds to one of ours, it is a rough correspondence. There’s nothing precise about our knowledge of their extent. Without Bede, we wouldn‘t know of them at all! He was the first to establish the rule that an historian should record the facts, whether or not he agreed with them. The guy showed us all how to do it).
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Re: Pagan Christianity? (Branwen)
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