Welcome to the Celtic Calendar
Jul 26, 2022, 03:24 PM
Speaker: archive producer, John Ward
Full details on the project can be found at Racontour
Welcome to the Celtic Calendar, a comprehensive audio archive on the four seasons and their cross-quarter days in Ireland. As old as time itself, the seasons were the constant path by which our ancestors survived through passed-down knowledge, customs and rituals.
GUIDE FEATURES: This playlist is laid out in the way the old Celtic Calendar was set with the new year starting at Samhain. Another feature to note is that the new day commenced at dusk, not dawn and thus why Halloween is on the 31st of October, May Eve is a key part of Bealtaine etc.
SPOTIFY: This platform has allowed us to be creative in ensuring you can access it on your smart phone with ease. Below are the Spotify options: -
Celtic Calendar playlist - no music, just audio of all four festivals.
Samhain folklore - music and lore for Samhain
Imbolc folklore - music and lore for Imbolc
Bealtaine folklore - music and lore for Bealtaine*
Lughnasa folklore - music and lore for Lughnasa
*Bealtaine has a different format in that a lot of it was recorded via Zoom in May 2021. Sometimes the audio slips.
VOICES: a wide variety of voices were used in the making of this programme. We have endeavoured to have their names directly under each audio piece. A special thanks needs to go to Sean McMahon RIP, Mary Murphy, Dessie McCallion and Gretta Browne for their sterling work. We've used a variety of styles from scripted audio to live and natural to outdoors and yes, Zoom - it adds a nice mix for what is in itself an often unpredictable miscellany!
Full details on the project can be found at Racontour
Welcome to the Celtic Calendar, a comprehensive audio archive on the four seasons and their cross-quarter days in Ireland. As old as time itself, the seasons were the constant path by which our ancestors survived through passed-down knowledge, customs and rituals.
GUIDE FEATURES: This playlist is laid out in the way the old Celtic Calendar was set with the new year starting at Samhain. Another feature to note is that the new day commenced at dusk, not dawn and thus why Halloween is on the 31st of October, May Eve is a key part of Bealtaine etc.
SPOTIFY: This platform has allowed us to be creative in ensuring you can access it on your smart phone with ease. Below are the Spotify options: -
Celtic Calendar playlist - no music, just audio of all four festivals.
Samhain folklore - music and lore for Samhain
Imbolc folklore - music and lore for Imbolc
Bealtaine folklore - music and lore for Bealtaine*
Lughnasa folklore - music and lore for Lughnasa
*Bealtaine has a different format in that a lot of it was recorded via Zoom in May 2021. Sometimes the audio slips.
VOICES: a wide variety of voices were used in the making of this programme. We have endeavoured to have their names directly under each audio piece. A special thanks needs to go to Sean McMahon RIP, Mary Murphy, Dessie McCallion and Gretta Browne for their sterling work. We've used a variety of styles from scripted audio to live and natural to outdoors and yes, Zoom - it adds a nice mix for what is in itself an often unpredictable miscellany!
Our atavistic instincts are still attuned to beliefs that existed long before Patrick arrived. An ancient time when the deities who oversaw the cycle of the seasons were honoured through customs and rituals.
Four festivals in this Celtic calendar helped our ancestors plan how their crops and animals should be utilised. The cross-quarter days of Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain serve as markers for the season ahead.
Though they may sound slightly archaic, we still perform customs that our ancestors once did at these festivals. For centuries, they've brought communities together serving as a benign social control from respecting the darkness of Winter to the plenitude of the harvest.
Paying heed to the cycles of the seasons creates a visceral bond between us and Mother Earth. Not just that, the customs of the Celtic calendar form a potent arc between us and ancient Ireland. Bypassing all invaders, both spiritual and temporal, these living customs are the most direct and powerful link to the distant past we could possibly imagine. Long may they thrive.
This audio archive is dedicated to my late cousin, Helen Sharkey, a remarkable artist from Belfast. Her heart took her far too early while she sold her art in St. George's Market in July 2022 with a funeral at Lughnasa.
© 2021-2022 Racontour Productions. This clip forms part of the Celtic Calendar audio archive from Racontour Productions. Feel free to share if enjoyed, but with a credit or a social media tag to Racontour Productions please.
SPOTIFY: This platform has allowed us to be creative in ensuring you can access it on your smart phone with ease. Below are the Spotify options: -
Celtic Calendar playlist - no music, just audio of all four festivals.
Samhain folklore - music and lore for Samhain
Imbolc folklore - music and lore for Imbolc
Bealtaine folklore - music and lore for Bealtaine
Lughnasa folklore - music and lore for Lughnasa
© 2021-2022 Racontour Productions. This clip forms part of the Celtic Calendar audio archive from Racontour Productions. Feel free to share if enjoyed, but with a credit or a social media tag to Racontour Productions please.
SPOTIFY: This platform has allowed us to be creative in ensuring you can access it on your smart phone with ease. Below are the Spotify options: -
Celtic Calendar playlist - no music, just audio of all four festivals.
Samhain folklore - music and lore for Samhain
Imbolc folklore - music and lore for Imbolc
Bealtaine folklore - music and lore for Bealtaine
Lughnasa folklore - music and lore for Lughnasa