WISHING EVERYONE HAPPY CELTIC PAGAN MAY FESTIVITIES- The ancient Celtic Pagan festivities such #beltane in May which celebrates the move from winter to spring was marked by daily festivals & rituals like #garlanding & #maypoledancing throughout #Ireland & #Britain & continued to thrive despite Christian & Roman settlements in the early halfof the First Century AD & the Anglo Saxon invasions from 593 AD. According to early Roman & Greek accounts the British & Irish shared an identical form of worship of the forces of nature led by a magical priesthood called #Druids - While the Pagan Celts absorbed many of the Roman pantheon into their rituals which hitherto were void of anthropomorphism, Celtish celbrations like Beltane & the festivities and rituals celebrating the forests & the fecundity of harvests and the metropolitan crafts and artisans. Far from being eradicated by the establishment of Christianity in Ireland & Britain, Christianity was heavily shaped by the beliefs & rituals of Pagan Celts. Even the 6th Century invasion by Anglo Saxons failed to destroy the pagan festivals sway over Britain & Ireland. Even Pagan rituals like May Pole dancing, the Lords of Misrule & garlanding of everything from the sea & forests to chimney sweeps & cowherds dominated the Irish & British calendar until the rise of Calvinism & the Reformation of 1636 when #puritans linked both the Celtic race & #paganism to Satan #pagan #celt #queerhistory #irishhistoryandheritage #druid #mayday (at Mayfair, W1 London) https://www.instagram.com/p/COd-HaSghiI/?igshid=1lfbacwgacikq
