Spring Flowers and Bonfires

Spring Flowers and Bonfires

We have just recently returned from a mini book-signing tour in parts of Mississippi where I led churches before I retired. It was a wonderful time of reconnection with the people I pastored from 2009 until 2019.

While away we were treated to a mixed bag of spring weather from cold and windy to warm and mild.  Now back home in the Louisville area, my daffodils are flowering in the chill of what feels like winter! We are, however, several weeks from the annual celebration of renewal of life that we call Easter and so we will have more changeable weather yet.

One of the things that we think we know about the old religions of the Celts is that they were nature-centric and closely tied to the changes of the seasons.  The solstices and  equinoxes were particularly prime times for the practice of religious ceremonies.

The eight main holy days during the year began with New Year, Samhain, October 31st, continued with Yule or Winter Solstice, then Imbolc, February 2 (a celebration of motherhood), Ostara, Spring Equinox, Beltane, April 30, (celebrating fertility), Litha, Summer Solstice, Lughnasa, August 2, First Harvest, and Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox.

We don’t really know what kinds of ceremonies the people of Aethelreda’s time participated in, but we may look to the remnants of ancient Celtic culture and religion in the present age to make some educated guesses.

Sacred trees and groves were probably central to their worship practices, and in some parts of the country, stone circles, where people gathered to dance and feast, but the thing that speaks to me is that there was almost always a big fire! I LOVE a big roaring fire.  I find a bonfire is simultaneously a thing of awe, and terror.  It’s not too hard to imagine that the people of the fifth century felt similar emotions as they lit and watched their fires burn to celebrate the return of light and warmth.