Autumnal Equinox
or Alban Elued 23 September

Autumnal equinox - a day of the year in autumn
when the night and day are of equal length.

From Caesar we know the Celts counted by nights and not days
and in reckoning birthdays and new moon and new year their unit
of reckoning is the night followed by the day.
This concept survives in the English term "fortnight," meaning
fourteen nights, or two weeks.
Pliny ascribes this form of time measuring specifically
to the Druids, "... for it is by the moon that they measure
their months and years and also their ages (saeculi) of thirty years."

Ancient Celtic philosophy believed that existence arose
from the interplay between darkness and light, night and day,
cold and warmth, death and life, and that the passage of years
was the alternation of dark periods
(winter, beginning November 1) and light periods
(summer, starting May 1).

The Druidic view was that the earth was
in darkness at its beginning, that night preceded
day and winter preceded summer a view in striking
accord with the story of creation in Genesis and even
with the Big Bang theory.
Thus, Nov. 1 was New Years Day for the Celts,
their year being divided into four major cycles.

The onset of each cycle was observed with suitable
rituals that included feasting and sacrifice.
According to several sources the Celtic year had eight
primary festivals, four coincided with the celestial divisions
dictated by the movement of the earth the other four,
detailed below, had special religious significance.
Several celebrations of a more local nature were scattered
between each of the major celebrations.

The lesser holidays primarily commemorated
battle victories or honored local heroes.


Lammas