Cead Mile Failte!

Greetings and welcome to the TribeOfCelts! We are a community that is dedicated to not only honoring, but also educating the world about the great peoples that were the Celts. And not only the Celts of Eire and Albion with whom more people familiar, but we also want to explore the peoples that were spread across most of Europe who were also considered Celtic people.

Membership:Joining is easy! All you have to do is us! Just click that little "Watch Deviant" button, add our icon to your journal or shoutboard, and you're in!

We have two different levels of membership at the moment!

Everyone starts in the "luchd-turais" membership level. These are deviants who just watch and learn from the background. The second level is the "coimhearsnachd" membership level. Once a member has submitted a piece of artwork, they will be moved up to this category. Check the box at the bottom of our journal to see where you stand!

PLEASE NOTE: Our mission statement is to educate others through art. This is not simply an art sharing community; we have a purpose behind our art. If you are only interested someone else reposting your art and are not interested in learning or teaching, this club is not for you. PLEASE read the submission policy first!

Submission Policy: A must read for everyone!
Recommended Reading and Links

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Greetings once again everybody!

Hopefully you've been noticing we're getting back on track over here with keeping on top of new submissions and the like. We'd like to announce the addition of a new Seanchaí (Moderator-person) to our team who will be helping us with things! Everybody say hello to and go give her lots of loves!

Earth Hour:Are you participating in Earth Hour tonight? Its from 8:30pm - 9:30pm EST (check your local news to see when your Earth Hour starts!) Don't know what Earth Hour is? Its a great event that is just three years old, but is catching on quickly! 2,400 cities across 82 countries have officially signed up to participate in this event. How do you participate you ask? Its simple. You turn off all the lights in your home for one hour. That's it. One hour. Many people go further and turn off all electronics for that hours as well. Its a worldwide demonstration to show the support for energy conservation. Visit the official website for more details: [link]

Beltaine: Its getting to be that time of year again as well, time for spring, for flowers, for rebirth, and of course, large bonfires. Beltaine is coming up quickly! What is that you ask? Beltaine is an old pagan holiday celebrated by the Celtic peoples (largely in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man). This holiday which was later turned into May Day by the Catholic Church, is the third of three spring holidays which celebrate the revival of the land from its winter slumber and the beginning of the planting season.

From Wikipedia.com:
In Irish mythology, the beginning of the summer season for the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians started at Bealtaine. Great bonfires would mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with ritual acts to protect the people from any harm by Otherworldly spirits, such as the Aos Sí. Like the festival of Samhain, opposite Beltane on October 31 Beltane was also a time when the Otherworld was seen as particularly close at hand.

Early Gaelic sources from around the 10th century state that the druids of the community would create a need-fire on top of a hill on this day and drive the village's cattle through the fires to purify them and bring luck (Eadar dà theine Bhealltainn in Scottish Gaelic, 'Between two fires of Beltane' ). This term is also found in Irish and is used as a turn of phrase to describe a situation which is difficult to escape from. In Scotland, boughs of juniper were sometimes thrown on the fires to add an additional element of purification and blessing to the smoke. People would also pass between the two fires to purify themselves. This was echoed throughout history after Christianization, with lay people instead of Druid priests creating the need-fire. The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today.

From ChaliceCentre.net:
Beltaine was a time of fertility and unbridled merrymaking, when young and old would spend the night making love in the Greenwood. In the morning, they would return to the village bearing huge budding boughs of hawthorn (the may-tree) and other spring flowers with which to bedeck themselves, their families, and their houses. They would process back home, stopping at each house to leave flowers, and enjoy the best of food and drink that the home had to offer. In every village, the maypole—usually a birch or ash pole—was raised, and dancing and feasting began. Festivities were led by the May Queen and her consort, the King who was sometimes Jack-in-the-Green, or the Green Man, the old god of the wildwood. They were borne in state through the village in a cart covered with flowers and enthroned in a leafy arbor as the divine couple whose unity symbolized the sacred marriage of earth and sun.

When the Druids and their successors raised the Beltaine fires on hilltops throughout the British Isles on May Eve, they were performing a real act of magic, for the fires were lit in order to bring the sun’s light down to earth. In Scotland, every fire in the household was extinguished, and the great fires were lit from the need-fire which was kindled by 3 times 3 men using wood from the nine sacred trees. When the wood burst into flames, it proclaimed the triumph of the light over the dark half of the year.

Contest!:One of our affiliates, *dAPagan is running a contest for this holiday! Go check out details of it here: [link] . We would love to see some historically researched pieces come out of this contest! There are some great prizes attached to this too, so get crackin'!

P.S. Please make sure to check our member's list to make sure we didn't miss you! Just a reminder, the Coimhearsnachd list is for those members who have submitted a piece to the club. The Luchd-turais list is for those members who have joined but are just watching for now. Send a note or leave a comment if you have been miscategorized!


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Created by =TheArcher777 and *Lindowyn