Folk Festivals

The ever-changing colours of the seasons and hue of the year is something that’s always fascinated me. When I lived in cities it was something that didn’t seem so clear. I would catch the greening and browning of trees and the spectacular autumn hues of leaves. A sign of the seasons in itself. Anything subtler was lost on me. Now I can’t imagine missing the colours of the wild hedgerows. Summer starts turning them foamy white, as they are saturated with Hawthorn blossom. The subtle shades of the amazing purples of the Highland Heather in bloom. The dark purple of …

What is Martinmas? Change is inevitable. A time of change to the Scottish, is a chance for speculation and divination, worry, hope and sacrifice. This mind set is echoed in the changing of the seasons throughout the year but is especially felt at the great “hinges”, Summer and winter.  The change from one season to another is marked by a number of special days. Martinmas is a poor cousin of other the other high and holy days. A mostly forgotten day in the year before the start of Yule and after Samhuinn’s end. However, I think Martinmas holds some of …

On the 31st of October the night of Halloween arrives. This time is also known in Gaelic as Samhuinn, or Oidhche Shamhuinn, an t-samhuinn, Hallowe’en, Hallowmas, All hallows, All saints eve, All saints, the first night of winter or meal-and-bree night. In the season leaves should love, since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name. Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then …

on the 29th of September Michaelmas la fhéile Mícheal arrives. Just before this the equinox when the sun rises due east and sets due west, the night and day at equal measure directing the Milky way as it stretches across the sky, creating a giant cross. The Sun’s movement inscribes the line of balance across the sky dividing things into exactly two equal parts. A moment of poise and then onwards. It’s a very liminal astrological time (though not so recognised by the Gaels). This date is an interesting counterpoint to La Fheil Cailleach in March, in Autumn we celebrate …

Lunastal. This time of year has always been special to me, which we try to align to the new moon or full depending. It marks the beginning of the “folk Autumn” season or second half of summer in the Celtic Calendar, midsummer. Nature’s signs tell us its time when we are able to gather the berries such as blae and bilberries and the collect the first raspberries. The fields of yellowing billowing wheat, barley and other grains, dotted with the red of poppy, as they are waiting to be cut. On Lammas Day The glad fly loses an eye Lùnastal …

Midsummer, the summer solstice, St Johns mass (the birth of St. John the Baptist), An Fheill Sheathan – all these names recall a festival that is at counterpoint to Yul or Jul. Like the Winter solstice feast the summer solstice, though not ignored by the Gaels and other Celtic people were of much less importance to them than other Europeans. It’s suggested that the Celts didn’t divide their calendar by solstices. The largest traces we have of the solstice celebrations are, unsurprisingly, in Orkney and Shetland where the Scandinavian influences were strongest. Masons and Masonic lodges in later years also …