November 2020 Getting to Know the Irish: What is the Celtic Calendar?

What is the Celtic Calendar? It is a collection of a pre-Christian Celtic system of timekeeping. It includes the Gaulish Coligny calendar used by Celtic countries (Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany-France, & Ireland) to define the day, week, month, seasons and festivals. This calendar was in use almost 2,000 years ago, we clearly do not use it today but it’s worth knowing that is existed.

Today we use the Gregorian calendar (named after 16 century Pope Gregory Xlll) and most of the world uses it too. However, a few countries do not use the Gregorian calendar today, which include Nepal (Bikram Samvat), Afghanistan (Solar Hijri), Iran (Solar Hijri) & Ethiopia (Ethiopian). The Hebrew calendar is used for Jewish holidays and the Lunar Hijri (Islamic calendar) is used to determine Islamic holidays.

I have been thinking of time & calendars, because as we all know during this pandemic our time & schedule has maybe permanently been altered. Psalm 39 in the Bible says how our days are numbered: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” The Rolling Stones have a song, “Time is on my side” I am not so sure anymore.

The Gaulish Coligny calendar is the oldest known Celtic lunar ritual calendar. The original calendar was a plate it endures in fragments. The calendar was an attempt to reconcile the cycles of the moon and sun. Among the Celts the year was divided into a light half and a dark half. The day was seen as beginning at sunset so the year was seen as beginning with the arrival of the darkness around November 1st (Samhain) The light half of the year started on May 1st. (Beltane) A number of Celtic terms survived the approval of the Christian Calendar such as Samhain, (November-Winter) Imbolc, (Spring-St. Bridget’s Day) Beltane(May Day festival) and Lughnasadh (harvest season). The calendar reflected an agrarian society maintaining & producing crops.

 I wish all of you loads of time & kind people to spend it with. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It is my favorite holiday, although I’m a fulfilled vegetarian. I have a portobello mushroom and acorn squash with walnuts on this bountiful Holiday. I am entirely thankful to all of you who send me kind messages, I enjoy every note.

Gaelic for the month:
Calendar-feilire
Year-bhliain
Month-mhi
Week-seachtain
Day-la

“The way we spend our time defines who we are.” Jonathan estrin

“Time is more valuable than money because time is irreplaceable” john maxwell

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