Yule, Beltane, and Halloween Festivals (Folklore History Series)

James Napier

Description

Yule, Beltane, and Halloween Festivals explores ancient celebrations and feasts that ancient communities of people held in worship of their gods.

James Napier shines light on long-forgotten rituals and beliefs in this exploration of ancient religion. First published in 1879, this volume is a fascinating investigation of the festivals and feasts that were held in worship of the sun. These prehistoric communities viewed the sun as the giver and vivifier of all life.

Sujets

• Religion
• Customs
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social Science
• Traditions

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781446548721
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Yule, Beltane, And Halloween Festivals
By James Napier
CONTENTS
Title
Yule, Beltane, And Halloween Festivals
YULE, BELTANE, HALLOWEEN FESTIVALS:
Survivals of Ancient Sun and Fire Worship.
History and prehistoric investigations have shown quite clearly that prehistoric man worshipped the Sun, the giver and vivifier of all life, as the supreme God. To the sun they offered sacrifices, and at stated periods celebrated festivals in his honour; and at these festivals bread and wine and meat were partaken of, with observances very similar in many respects to the practices of the Jews during their religious feasts. But although the sun was the supreme deity, other objects were also worshipped as subordinate deities. These objects, however, were generally in some manner representative of sun attributes ; for example, the Moon was worshipped as the spouse of the Sun, Venus as his page. The pleiades and other constellations, and single stars were also deified; the rainbow and the lightning were sun servants, the elements, the sun s offspring. Many animals and trees were reverenced as representatives of sun attributes. Above all, fire was worshipped as the truest symbol of the sun upon earth, and all offerings and sacrifices in honour of the sun were presented through fire; thus sun and fire worship became identified.
In Britain sun-worship appears to have been purer in prehistoric than it afterwards was in historic times, purer also than the sun-cult of historic Egypt, Greece, or Rome; that is, there appears to have been in British sun-worship less of polytheism than, prevailed in Egypt, Greece, or Rome. But during the historic period, the numerous invasions and the colonizations of different portions of this country by the Romans and other nations, who brought with them their special religious beliefs and formulae of worship, caused the increase of polytheism by the commingling of the foreign and native elements of belief, and later on, these were mixed with Christianity, and in these mixings all the elements became modified, so that now it is very difficult to separate with certainty the aboriginal, invasional, and Christian elements.
From many indications it seems more than probable that the sun-cult in prehistoric Britain was very similar, even in many minor points, to the solar worship of the ancient Peruvians. At the same time, there is not the slightest probability that these two widely separated sun-cults ever had a common point of historical connection, nor, in order to explain their similarities, is such an historical explanation necessary. Quite sufficient is the explanation that both possessed in common a human nature, emotional and intellectual, moving on the same plane of childlike intelligence, and that both from this common standpoint had regard to the same striking and regularly recurring scenes of natural phenomena, Prescott thus describes the worship of these ancient Peruvians :- The Sun was their primary God; to it was built a vast temple in the capital, more radiant with gold than that of Solomon s; and every city had a temple dedicated to the sun, and blasphemy against the sun was punished with death. The principal festivals of the year were at the equinoxes and solstices. That at midsummer was the grandest It was preceded by a three days fast; then every one who had time and money visited the city. Great fires were kindled from the sun s rays or by friction, from which sacred fires people kindled their hearth; all household fires having previously been extinguished. Poor countries and districts, where the arts were in a backward condition, instead of having temples like the Peruvians, dedicated mountains and stone circles to the great luminary. It is the all but universal opinion that in this country, centuries before the Christian era, the religion of the people was Druidism; but this is merely the name of a system, and is equivalent to our saying that the present religion of our country is Presbyterianism, a statement which conveys no idea of the nature of our religious worship. The Druids were a priestly order who governed the country, and directed the worship of the people, the principal objects of worship being, as we have already said, the sun and fire. The Druids, says the late Rev. James Rust, formed an ecclesiastico-political association, and professed to explain the deep mysteries respecting God and man, and were the sacerdotal rulers, and called in consequence Druids or mystery-keepers. They were not allowed to commit anything to writing respecting their mysteries, and no one was allowed to enter their order till after a prolonged probation, terminating in swearing most solemnly to keep their mysteries secret for ever; and by this means they obtained great power and influence over all classes of the people.
Concerning the name Druid, the writer in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana says, The name Druid is derived from dent, an oak. The Druids were an order of priests; they were divided into three classes, resembling the Persian magi The first class were the Druids proper; they were the highest nobility, to whom was entrusted all religious rites and education. The second class were the bards; they were principally employed in public instruction, which was given in verse. The third class was called Euvates; whose office it was to deliver the responses of the oracles, and to attend the people who consulted them. The knowledge of astronomy and computation of time possessed by the Druids was of a high order, and, no doubt, was the form of worship imported from Chaldea.
It is known that the Ph nicians had colonized Britain at least 1000 years B.C., and doubtless they would bring with them their form of worship, their gods being the sun, the moon, and fire. We may here find a very early source for the institution of sun-worship in these islands, if we can believe that such a very partial colonization as was effected by the Phoenicians could work a religious similarity throughout the entire island. I think it probable that sun-worship existed before the Phoenicians came to the island, but they may have elevated its practice. Following the writer in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, we are told that in addition to their worship of the sun, the Druids held sacred the spirits of their ancestors, paid great honour to mountains, lakes, and groves. Groves of oak were their temples, and their places of worship were open to heaven, such as stone circles. They had also a ceremony of baptism, dipping in the sacred lake, as an initiatory rite, and had also a sacrament of bread and wine. They paid great reverence to the egg of the serpent, the seed of the oak, and above all, the mistletoe that grew upon the oak; and they offered in sacrifice to the sun and fire, men and animals.
Many of the localities where their worship was observed in this country can still be identified through the names which these places still bear. One or two are here given, because they refer to sun-worship:-
Grenach (in Perthshire), means Field of the Sun.
Greenan (a stream in Perthshire), means River of the Sun.
Balgreen (a town in Perthshire and other counties), means Town of the Sun.
Grian chnox (Greenock), means Knoll of the Sun.
Granton, means Sun s Fire.
Premising, therefore, that sun-worship and Druidical customs form the original base of all our old national festivals, we will now direct attention to the great festival of
YULE.
The term Yule was the name given to the festival of the winter solstice by our northern invaders, and means the Festival of the Sun.