Celtic Mythology and Religion

CELTIC WORSHIP AND RITES. 163
h-aoine, " day of fast ;
" and Saturday, Di-Sathuirne
(dies Saturni).
Fire and Sun worship, and along with these, the
worship of the earth-powers, fell
on the four great
solar periods, the two solstices and the two equinoxes.
Lunar time was made to fit these by holding the feasts
on the first full moon, or the 14th of the month,
after the equinox or solstice. The great winter
feast on December 25th, when the sun just turned
on its northward course again, was solemnised in
honour of the new birth of the " unconquered sun,"
dies natalis invicti solis,
and was held in Rome in
honour of the sun-god Mithra, of Persian origin,
whose festival was finally established by Aurelian
as national and Roman, about a.d. 273. A hundred
years later the Christian Church accepted it, doubtfully
and reluctantly, as the natal day of Christ,
thus entering on a course which it consistently
pursued of christianising all pagan rites, festivals,
and even temples. The midsummer solstice was
therefore dedicated to St John the Baptist, and so on.
The Celtic, or rather Gaelic festivals, of a distinctive
kind, are three in number ;
Bealltuinn (1st May),
Lunasduinn (1st August), and Samhuinn (1st November).
Why these festivals should be a month
later than the solar periods in each case, is doubtful ;
but it is clear that these periods suit the climatic
changes of the seasons in the North better than the
earlier, though truer, solar periods.
The great festival of Beltane occurred on May-day.