urope, especially Britain and Ireland, and even in parts of North America,which preserves and incorporates many of the early traditions of Beltane.Autumn represented the harvest, wisdom, and a time for introspection, but also it was a time for deliberatemisrule and mischief. The festival of Samhain is celebrated on October 31, and it was thought to be the time whenthe veil between the spirit and material world was the thinnest, and the souls of the dead were able to re-enter theworld, or the living could enter into the otherworld. Effigies representing sorrows and misfortunes of the past yearwere burnt, and elaborate feasts were held to honor the deceased and the wisdom of the ancestors. The Celts wouldoften don disguises of animal skins to scare away the evil spirits which may have entered the realm of the living. This festival is still celebrated as Halloween, or All Hallows Eve in many countries around the world.Winter was characterized by death, and ultimate rebirth and a turning of the earth force tides. Thefestival of Alban Arthuan was celebrated on Winter Solstice, welcoming the old woman of winter, or the Crone,into the world once more. In recognition of the shortest day of the year, a log of ash or oak was ritually burned,and its ashes spread upon the fields to promote fertility (Eddy, 1999). This tradition of burning the Yule log hasalso come be preserved in modern traditions, especially during the holiday of Christmas. Celtic people of Europe lived in relative peace for thousands of years, until they were faced with a newthreat the likes of which they had never before experienced. In about fifty years leading up to the birth of Christ,Roman militaries were making sweeping advances on the Celtic tribes of Europe, especially those in Britain. Enticed by the green and fertile lands and resources that the Celts had long held sacred to them, the Roman forces,headed by Gaius Julius Caesar, invaded and conquered with ferocio...
