The Welsh are a Celtic people and their days of the week are associated richly with their ancient Celtic traditions. Here you can find a list of the days of the week in Welsh and some of the traditions associated with each day in that Celtic country. The names of their days closely mirrors the old Roman week. On a Monday, dydd Llun = moon, entering into a marriage or a commitment such as a loans were to be avoided because "work begun on Monday will never be a week old".

 Monday was considered a poor day to start a new project.

Tuesday, dydd Mawrth = Mars, was thought a propitious day, good for beginning a journey and if you could wait the Monday out it was a better day for a wedding.

Wednesday, dydd Mercher = Mercury, was believed to be a spirit day, in which new plans should be avoided, in case evil spirits might make plans fail.

Thursday, dydd Iau = Jupiter, was an great day to christen your child but a terrible day to move homes.

Friday, dydd Gwener = Venus, was the day that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, and was for that reason a particularly ill-omened day. Fruit trees were not to be tended to on a Friday lest they go barren and water, which was controlled from the other world was best avoided on this day.

Saturday, dydd Sadwrn = Saturn, was the luckiest day in Welsh tradition. An great day for marketing or for moving newly weds into the house but yet again it was a poor day for a marriage because to be married on this day might mean the couple might not live out the year.

Sunday, dydd Sul = sun, was a better day for a wedding. Also drawing from deep tradition it was believed that a knife-wound would heal slowly. This is a reminder of the tale of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who was killed with a blade forged during the Sunday mass. Wales has provided many gifts to the world not least its mellifluous language

The Celtic Crown This La Tene style crown was discovered in Corkand is referred to as the Petrie crown after the antiquarian Mr. George Petrie. The piece is a terrific example of early Irish Celtic metalworking and dates from the pagan Iron Age (400 BCE - 100 CE).

It was created in the la Tene style which means many sweeping lines, in repeating symmetircal lines so typical of our celtic ancestors. While the piece is definitely La Tene there are also Etruscan and Greecian influences. It was made by riveting seperate bronze pieces together. The circular bronze band is ornamented with attached concave roundels or circular discs, decorated with triskeles or spiral designs centred with birds' heads. Other bronze-sheet attachments, including a hollowed horn, are decorated with beads and form the crown itself. The influence of native Irish metalwork on this La Tène.

Celtic artwork is visible in the curvilinear patterns, and the symbol of the sun. The bird heads on the cone and discs of the crown were once filled with red enamel, as were settings in the bosses on the discs, one of which still contains an enamel stud. The Petrie Crown can now be seen in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin and is one of the finest artifacts in the from early Irish art history.

Occitan Occitan is a Latin or Romance language that is found mainly in southern France but also in Italy and Spain. There are perhaps 1.5 million people who speak Occitan in their daily lives, while a further 5 or 6 million people are able to speak the language. The greater part of speakers are now in the top demographic and found in rural areas.There are six dialects of Occitan: Provençal, Gascon, Languedoc, Limousin, Alpine and Auvergne. Occitan first appears in the written form around the 10th century and was a favourite of the trobadours.

These troubadours wrote and performed poetry dealing with topics such as love, satire and war in the courts of kings and nobles all over France, Spain and other European countries. When France became a centralised state in the 15th century, the language of the French court, langue d'oïl, was favoured over Occitan and other regional or national languages in the French state. Those languages went into decline. A revival in interest in Occitan started during the 19th century, largely thanks to poet, Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914), who wrote the much-admired long poem Mireiò and worked to standardise written Occitan. Mistral was adwarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904.

Today there is one weekly newspaper La Setmana, and one monthly magazine Prouvènço d'Aro written entirely in Occitan. Some of the popular regional newspapers, such as La Dépêche du Midi publish columns in Occitan. There are also cultural and/or political magazines and reviews such as L'Occitan, and bilingual ones such as Aquo d'Aqui and Monde en Óc. There are also a few Occitan radio and TV programmes. In France Occitan is considered a "regional language" and can be taught in schools only as a foreign language. There is no Occitan-medium education available and most teaching of Occitan is done on a private basis. It would appear to be counter-productive for the French state to effectively ban its own regional languages but unfortunately the present mindset seems to be that difference is a weakness and not a strength.

That is a pity but it is certain that Occitan can and will overcome such short sighted policies. In the Occitan-speaking part of Spain, the Aran Valley, Occitan has co-official status with Spanish and Catalan and is used in official documents, on road signs and as a medium of instruction in schools. The local government also provides financial support for the publication of books in Occitan. Occitan is a beautiful language and while at the Hestival d'oc (Occitan Festival) in Pau this year I heard it sung. This language is on the march once again and we wish it well. The Irish language can learn much about how other languages revive and reestablish themselves into daily life.

Llew Llaw Gyffes - the Pan-Celtic god Llew Llaw Gyffes is regarded by many students of Celtic History as being the Welsh counterpart of Lugh lamh fada - Lugh of the long arm. Lugh Lamh fada was the Irish god of light who was master of all skills. There are several tie-ins between the two gods . Llew is also a god who has mastered all the crafts and arts. The name of Lugh pops up repeatedly through the Celtic world and even all the way over to Poland there are placenames including the word Lugh. London city is also believed to be named after this God.  

He was the son of Arianrhod, a godess, but was raised by the poet Gwydion. As frequently happens in these mythological cycles ther are a number of injunctions put on him namely - that he cannot take a mortal wife; cannot bear arms, and cannot have a name. Gwydion recognises the burden this will place on Llew and using his cunning foolds Arianrhod into giving Llew a name, and arming him. Gwydion and Math also create a wife for him out of flowers and nine different elements. His wife Bloddeuwedd, the flower lady, however falls in with a man called Gronwy, and the two connive to put Llew to death. Llew can only be killed by standing with one foot in a cauldron placed on the bank of a river, with the other foot on a goat's back as day ends.

She begs Llew to tell her this secret and then does not believe that such a thing is possible. Llew foolishly proceeds to demonstrate how he can stand just as required and at that moment Gronwy ambushes him spears Llew. Llew manages to use his divin powers to assume the form of an eagle and fly away into an Oak tree. The poet Gwydion eventually restores him to mortal form, and changes Blodeuwedd into an owl as punishment. Llew remained an important Celtic god in all Celtic countries.

La Tène - A defining moment in Celtic Archaeology La Tène is an Iron Age archaeological site at the eastern shore of Lake Neuchâtel in western Switzerland which was discovered in 1857 when the water level had fallen to an unusually low level, revealing timber piles and many iron implements.   Scholars are divided on whether La Tène represents a community settlement of whether its a place for votive offerings. That theory is backed by the dearth of domestic articles found at the site and the large number of iron and bronze weapons found at the site.

There are also wooden buckets,bronze cauldron, and various tools. The name also applies to a late Iron Age cultural phase of the European Celts. La Tène culture originated in the mid-5th century BC, when the Celts came into contact with Greeks and Etruscans and Scythians. It included very abstract designs in metal, pottery, and wood. It passed through several phases and regional variations during the next 400 years, as the Celts populated northern Europe and the British Isle.

The earliest phase of Tenian culture, from the 6th to the late 5th cent. B.C., spread from the middle Rhine region E into the Danube valley, S into Switzerland, and W and N into France, the Low Countries, Denmark, and the British Isles; this was the period of the first of the great Celtic migrations. The La Tène ended in the mid-1st century BC, when most of the Celts were subjugated by the Romans spreading north from Italy. The Celtic peoples of the La Tène period built on many earlier developments and represents some of the most beautiful examples of Celtic art. This art style should also be considered in connection with the easrlier Halstatt culture of the Celts.

La Cruz Celta   La cruz celta es un icono religioso consistente en la unión de la cruz católica con un círculo, de simbología dudosa aunque indudablemente pagana.   Simbolismo y historia La cruz celta aparece hacia el siglo V, con la conversión del cristianismo de los celtas -tribu indoeuropea habitante del norte de Hispania, las Islandias y las zonas noroeste de Galia y Germania- por parte de apóstoles como Santiago o san Patricio .

 En ese momento se produjo la unión de la cruz con el círculo, en un ambiente general de sincretismo y unión religiosa en el que la religión druídica se fusionaba en parte con la católica, especialmente a partir del nombramiento de los primeros sacerdotes celtas. El círculo de la cruz parece ser un símbolo solar, aunque hay otras interpretaciones.

Esto tendría que ver con el mito céltico del rey Bran , señor del sol aunque existen tradiciones más antiguas que le sitúan como divinidad de las olas y el mar. Este dios gigante está representado por una cabeza, pues pidió al morir que le decapitaran, y que su testa fuera enterrada en la Colina Blanca de Londres, desde donde protegería a las islas si seguía sin ver la luz.

La Croix Celtique La croix est l'un des symboles fondamentaux de l'humanité et cela bien avant l'arrivée du christianisme. Les chrétientés Celtiques d'Irlande ont, dès le IIIe s, développé le symbolisme de la croix cerclée, synthèse intime et parfaite entre la tradition Celtique et le christianisme. On pourrait dire Celtique est une synthèse du christianisme et de la tradition Celtique.

Le cercle, à la fois magique et céleste, symbolise le ciel, les branches de la croix représentent les quatre éléments l'air, la terre, l'eau, le feu et également les points cardinaux de l'espace, les quatre saisons, la division Celtique traditionnelle d'un territoire en quatre. Le centre est un lieu de passage et de communication symbolique entre ce monde et l'autre, les entrelacs expriment le mouvement sans fin de l'évolution et de l'involution des faits cosmiques et humains.

Spanning the years 1200 BC - 475 BC this stage of Celtic culture is broken into four phases:A & B late Bronze Age, from c 1200 to 700 BC; C Early Iron Age, from c700-600 BC; D from c 600 to 475 BC It covered the central parts of Europe with its epicenter in Central Austria. It stretched from eastern France to Western Hungary but was not one continous, homegenous culture. It was split into two cultural areas - the western and the Eastern. When the Halstatt period began all the requirements to develop an advanced civilsation were in place.

There was already a long tradition of tarding copper and tin, necessary for Bronze works. Typically the tin cam from Cornwall, which even today is a celtic region - Kernow. Then from around 700 BC new supplies of Iron became common and all the pieces were in place to develop the area. The tribes of the Hallstat region were already mining salt, a key preservative of food. The provision of Bronze, Iron and Salt allowed Halstatt to become wealthy and allowed for the development of fine goods. From 800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified buried with items such as wheeled wagons or iron swords. The next phase, Hallstatt C, saw the construction of fortified hilltop settlements to the North of the Alps.

The precursors of the settlements that Caesar would later encounter in Gaul. These locations included burial mounds with high quality offerings like expensive imported treasures. Then moving onto the Hallstatt D period we see the centering of the most elaborate burial sites to the south-western part of Halstatt. This is taken to suggest a focussing of power and influence into one area. That area may have been the Greek trading port of Massilia (today called Marseilles) During excavations carried out from 1846 to 1863, over 1000 burial sites were unearthed at Hallstatt, providing a wide range of artefacts, such as saltmining equipment, weapons, pottery and imported bronze vessels.

This culture represents with La Tène one of the key moments in Celtic Art.

The Basque language  While Irish has the honour of being the oldest written langauge in Europe, the title of oldest spoken language must go to our cousins the Basques.   Basque, or Euskara, is an ancient language spoken by over a million people in northern Spain and southwestern France. Its a langugae that has defied every attempt the classify it and bears no meaningful relation to any other language.

It is the only remaining Pre Aryan language remaining in Europe. Having listened to the Basque TV station ETB 1 it must be said that it sounds like Spanish, with its five pure vowels and such peculiarities as a trilled r and palatal n and l. Like all languages Basque has taken some latinate loan words however its has remained truely unique despite 2000 years of contact with other nations and despite having its own state. One of the features of Basque is that it is agglutinative - meaning that it builds up words, just as Finnish does, to add meanining. It also has an impressive 20 different cases. Basque is the only remaining language of those spoken prior to the Roman conquest.

 Since the 10th century, it has been under pressure from Spanish and French or even Occitan. Politically the basque language is struggling to find its feet as Basque is not the official language for large tracts of the Basque country. The language is gaining in popularity and looks to be going from strength to strength though. Agur (good bye).

The Celtic World in all its intersts.