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Blogs by Cornelia Amiri
CELTIC ROMANCE 2/18/2007 2:33:19 PM
LONG SWORDS, HOT HEROES, AND WARRIOR WOMEN QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories." Ursula K. LeGuin
BEST WEB SITES OF CELTIC SAINT DAYS IN MARCH
The Saints of March
By Cornelia Amiri
In March, the Celts of Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall celebrate their patron saints. Join the international celebration of St. David Day, St. Piran Day, and St. Patrick Day with these ten web sites.
1. Happy St. Patrick Day
****
Four stars for two dancing leprechauns that welcome all to scroll through the history of St Patrick's Day. Read an old poem about the wee folk. Scroll through articles on the Blarney stone and the St Patrick day pinch. Get a free St. Patrick Day screensaver. Then pass Irish toasts, sayings, and humor to a recipe for Irish Coffee.
http://www.marvelicious.com/stpatrick.html
2. Saint Piran
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Three stars for this tribute to Piran, the Patron Saint of Cornwall. This site features two stunning, seaside photos of Perranporth where the saint founded his first church in the sand hills.
http://www.request.org.uk/main/dowhat/saints/cornwall05.htm
3. Celebrating St. David
***
Three stars for this site about St. David, the patron saint of Wales. Click on the left hand menu for several stories about his life or click on Celebrating St. David’s Day, to see the sweet picture of the Welsh girls in their traditional peasant costume.
http://www.saintdavid.org.uk/
4. Top of the Mornin
****
Four stars for lively Irish music which plays as a shower of shamrocks bring blessings to us all. Scroll to the St. Patrick's Day Index and click on recipes to make Irish stew, Irish whiskey pie, and Irish soda bread.
http://www.geocities.com/stasiaelle/stpindex.htmlch
5. St. David’s Day in Beijing
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Three stars for a site which tributes the Cymru around the World. Great photos of the St. David’s Day ball in of all places, Beijing China.
http://www.stdavidschina.org/stdavids2006.html
6. St. Piran
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Three stars for this interesting site on Saint Piran, patron saint of tin-miners, and national saint of Cornwall. A gorgeous stain glass graphic of St. Piran graces the page.
http://www.st-piran.com/st-piran.htm
7. The St. Patrick's River Day Dance Celebration
****
Four stars for animated graphics of a leprechaun fiddler and one wee man with a squeeze box playing a tune for four high stepping lassies, four foot stomping leprechauns, four prancing Irish pixies, four dancing laddies, four decked out wedding dancing couples, and other characters. Including some pigs doing an Irish jig.
http://members.tripod.com/~ireport/indexStpatdance.html
8. St. David
****
Four stars for this St. David Day site with a brief history of the origins, customs, and traditions of Wales' patron saint. Click on Welsh Graphics for colorful St. David Clip art. Cook up some real treats for St. David’s day from the Welsh Recipe page with yummy fare such as Welsh Rarebit, Bara Brith, and traditional Cawl.
http://www.geocities.com/traditions_uk/StDavid.html
9. Bonnie Boo's St. Patrick's Day Too
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Three stars for a hilarious graphic of the wee Fairy King. Click on games and play a round or two of hot potato. Then click onto recipes and dine on stuffed potatoes. At the St. Patrick Day Adoptee page you may take home a fairy or dragon for yer own Irish home page.
http://bonnieboo.50megs.com/stpatrick/index.html
10. St. David
****
Four stars for a long list of links to fun activities for kids of all ages. Make a paper daffodil from an egg carton cup. Color a picture of St. David or a picture of picking daffodils. Take an online quiz about St. David’s Day. Click on links to try online jigsaw puzzles of daffodils, Cardiff castle, and Welsh dragons. Click on the links for daffodil and St. David Day clip art. http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/st%20davids%20day.htm
MY WELSH ARTICLE OF THE WEEK:
Welsh Daffodils
By Cornelia Amiri
Daffodils and newborn lambs have heralded springtime in Wales for thousands of years. Not only are yellow daffodils the essence of spring but they also hold a place of sacred honor to the Welsh. One of the daffodil's many Welsh names is Cenhinen Bedr (Peter's leek). St. David, also known as Dewi, the patron saint of Wales, was a monk who lived on bread, water, herbs and leeks. The day he died, March 1, 589 A. D., is celebrated each year in Wales as St. David’s day.
At the battle of Heathfield in 633 AD, which took place in a field of leeks, St. David told the Welsh warriors to wear a leek on their helmet so they could tell them apart from the Saxons they were fighting. Legend has it that the wild daffodils open their buds on March 1st to remind people of Saint David. Also Welsh soldiers wear a leek or daffodil in the their caps each year on St. David's Day. Daffodils are often worn in place of leeks in hats and buttonholes, because they’re prettier and smell much sweeter.
Even warriors, both present and past, loved daffodils. The 8th century Welsh Warrior King, Elsiedd, has a pillar, a standing cross his grandson erected to honor his deeds in battle, which still stands in Powys near Eglwyseg Mountain. In my novel, One Heart One Way King Elisedd picked daffodils at the hill fort of Dynas Bran and discovered the magic within them as he said, “Aye, men like your sire and I are warrior kings. We have no time for pretty words and daffodils. We must look after our land and our people." As the stern-faced king spoke those words, he twirled a daffodil in hand. Ricole covered her trembling lips to keep from laughing. She gathered a bouquet of the yellow flowers and handed them to the king.” Don’t tell Carthann that you picked these flowers," Elisedd said. “Nay." Ricole leaned in close to him. "Are you going to give her the daffodils?" "Aye. Let her think I picked them, for it was my intent. 'Tis why I offered to bring you here, I remember a time when I picked daffodils for her. The summer scents and a pretty maid meant much to me. You make me feel young again girl."
When the Welsh began to settle in the New World, they did not leave their love of daffodils behind. They planted daffodils outside their homes to welcome new arrivals from Wales, so the immigrants would know where their fellow countrymen were living. As my maiden name is Welsh, my ancestor, Joseph Pritchett, may have gotten off the boat in Virginia in 1650 to find blooming daffodils welcoming him.
Recently I attended the Daffodil festival in Round Rock Texas. There they celebrate the national flower of Wales each year with fun and food. They have daffodil balloons, daffodil corsages, and daffodil note pads. The daffodil cup cakes were mouth watering, melt in your mouth delights. Don’t’ tell anyone, but I ate three. They were so good. But best of all the Daffodil festival had bunches of sunny daffodils.
I am honored to have ties to a county so brilliant they hold the vibrant yet gentle daffodil as their national emblem. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) summed it up best in his poem entitled Daffodils, “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”
AND HERE IS AN EXCERPT
Of ONE HEART ONE WAY
EXCERPT
"No one is going to hide me from my father's men." Ricole tilted her chin defiantly.
"Watch me Princess." Blaise noticed the wagon full of flowers from which the family had filled large wicker baskets of woad, madder, weld, and marjoram, to make dye.
The man winked at Blaise. "There is no more fitting place for a Powys prince then beneath the woad." He pointed to the wagon. "Get in."
Swiftly, the family cleared the wagon and Blaise climbed inside pulling Ricole with him. He lay at her side with his hand firmly covering her mouth. He couldnt help but smile as a ton of woad flowers were tossed over him and the princess.
His nose tickled, but he steeled himself and gripped Ricole firmly, ensuring her silence.It seemed he lay there forever, but never was he afraid the ruse wouldnt work for the woad protected him. It was the ancient flower by which druids of old brewed war paint to render the Cymry invincible. Blaise knew no Saxon could ferret him amid the
magic of woad.
Muscles stiff, he strained to stay still with his arm wrapped tightly about Ricole, his hand firmly clamped over her mouth. Lying deep under the soft cover of woad flowers, Blaise waited.
A thunderous sound of horses hooves, snorts, neighs, and the brutish shouts of threats, meant the war band had arrived. He knew by the banging and thrashing sounds, the Saxons ransacked the huts and stalls. He would make sure his sire replaced any loss of property his people faced this day.
It was hard to keep his muscles taught with Ricoles warm body crushed against him. He knew one flinch or squirm would cost him his life. He heard foot falls approach the wagon.
"What is this?" someone sneered in the gruff Saxon tongue.
Then a hand pushed deep into the flowery haven. Ricoles heart hammered loudly. The long, reaching fingers startled her. Blaise's heart pounded harder than the princess'. The looming hand flicked upwards, shuffling the top layer of flowers. Blaise prayed they were still concealed. He heard the rough voice of a soldier.
"Look at this dye merchant, he can barely hold up against the wind, so scrawny he is. Yet instead of growing food to fatten him up, he plants flowers. Daft Welshman."
Chuckles and sneers ensued from the guards.
Another voice queried, "What now?"
"Augh! We are in the heart of Powys, too close to Dinas Bran for our own good. We need turn back and report to King Aethelbald to tell him the Welshman didn't come this way."
MY ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
CELTIC ROMANCE
by Cornelia Amiri
Just as some of our fondest memories are of dating and weddings, courtship and betrothal was just as special to the ancient Celts. Love and marriage was so important to the Celts that they had more types of recognized marriages than any other culture. Under the Brehon (Brehoon) laws of Ireland, there were not one, but 10 types of marriage. I’ll list them.
#1. The man and wife contributed an equal amount of property or finances.
#2. A woman moved to the man's property and contributed little or nothing financially but managed the housekeeping.
#3. A man moved to the woman’s property and contributed little or nothing financially but managed her cattle and her fields.
#4. The husband and wife both had property and managed their own individually, but the children's rights were still safeguarded.
#5. By mutual consent the man and woman shared their bodies, but lived under separate roofs. I call that the have your cake and eat it too marriage.
#6. A man abducted the wife of a defeated enemy. So the woman came to that marriage as a spoil of war.
#7. The man and woman got together only for one night of sex. In modern times we have a slang expression for this relationship, we call it a one night stand. The Celts had an expression as well, they called it a soldier's marriage.
#8. A man seduced a woman by lying to her or by taking advantage of her while she was drunk.
#9. A union by forcible rape.
#10. Both the man and woman were either feeble-minded or insane.
The Welsh, under the laws of Hywell (whowell) the Good, they had the same types of marriages as the Irish, except for # 10.
All types of banter must have occurred regarding these marriages. Instead of Yo Mama, they might have said something like, “Oh, you must have been born from a number 10 marriage.” And they could have more than one spouse, so an ancient Celtic man or woman could have several combinations of marriages. Can you imagine meeting someone and asking not “are you married?” But “what number marriage do you currently have?” They might reply, “Oh, I have a #1 and a #5 and of course a couple of # 7’s.” . . . And I thought modern day dating was complicated.
To modern man, it seems silly or even cruel to refer to some of these unions as marriages. But it isn’t, because these marriages were not for the benefit of the man or woman, they were for the protection of the children. By recognizing all these unions as legal marriages, the Celts insured there were ¬no illegitimate children. A child born of any of the 10 unions would inherit like any of their parents’ other children. Also the land did not go to the eldest son. The estate was split between all children including the daughters, though they didn’t usually inherit land, but if a daughter had no brothers or if her husband had no land of his own, she would inherit land.
Handfasting was another type of Celtic union, it lasted for only a year and a day. Handfasting, predominantly took place at Lughnassadh (LOO-nahs-ah), the Celtic Harvest festival, celebrated August 1. The couple’s wrists were literally tied together during the ceremony. This is where we get the expression "tying the knot" which has come to mean getting married. Single men lined up on one side and unmarried women on the other. They paired off and married for a year and a day. The couple had to return to the same place the following year to make their marriage permanent. They could also end the union the following year at the festival by simply standing back to back, facing north and south, and walking out. Going their separate ways - single once more.
Fruit gathering was also part of Lughnassadh. And this was romantically done as young men and women paired off to pick bilberries and they didn’t return until nightfall. This included the sweet custom of boys threading the bilberries they picked into bracelets for the girls to wear that day.
Another important festival for the ancient Celts was Beltaine, which in modern times we call May Day. The May Queen led the Beltane procession with her ritual courtship of the Green Man. These symbolic marriages of the god and goddess, in the form of King and Queen of the May, were mirrored in human courtship. One of the most popular May Day traditions was to set a basket full of spring flowers or other small gifts at a neighbor’s house without them seeing you. If you got caught, they would chase, then kiss you. Courtships for the ancient Celts would often begin at Beltaine and the marriages would be held at Samhain, which in modern times we call Halloween.
Samhain, as the beginning of the New Year, was the main season of weddings for the ancient Celts. A tradition that survived in Wales, in Montgomeryshire, was on Samhain they made a mash of nine ingredients: potatoes, carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper, salt and new milk. A wedding ring was hidden in the mash. Teenage girls dug into the mash with wooden spoons, anxious to learn their fate, for the one who found the ring would be the first one married. The way it was done in Carmarthenshire, was that on Samhian, nine girls got together made a pancake containing nine ingredients, divided it among themselves, and ate it. Before dawn, each girl would have a vision of her future husband.
Moving forward, up to the 16th century, we find one of the most interesting Welsh customs, loving spoons. Celtic handmade love spoons were carved from one piece of wood with symbols on the stem, which had various meaning, from two hearts “We love each other” to an intricate knot meaning “together, forever.” A farmer might carve a vine with flowers on the stem which means “love grows.” A sailor might carve an anchor which means “steadfast love.” The spoon was the main eating utensil of the day, so by giving a lady a spoon the man was also saying I can provide for you, you won’t go hungry. Love spoons were like engagement rings, if the lady accepted the spoon, she accepted the proposed marriage.
Another quaint courtship custom which began in the 16th and 17th century was bundling. On long, dark, cold winter nights, courting couple were encouraged to share a bed - but they were fully clothed and the boy or girl was sewn into a "bundling bag," a linen sheet that would bind, confine, and conceal the legs, and consequently, private parts of the body. By the late 1600s, Wales's supposedly relaxed sexual morals had become the brunt of English jokes, with the scarcity of Welsh virgins the tired old punch line. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English historians blamed the wayward Welsh for the bundling custom, though bundling was a perfectly innocent courting ritual. It was even reported that female, Welsh servants were so fond of bundling, they refused to work unless their lovers were permitted to share their beds.
With this romp through the ages, from Brehon marriage laws to bundling, you can get a taste of what courtship and marriage was like for our ancestors. Romance was as important in deepest antiquity as it is today. For as the poets say . . . love is timeless.
FAVORITE LINKS:
ART – Explore the creative ventures of artist, writer and musician, Jolie E. Bonnette:
http://www.aazari.com/
In brick and motor stores:
Houston TX - Borders Bookstore at Westhimer & Gessner
Banres and Nobles in Spring TX
Conroe, Galveston, Kerrville, Victoria, Round Rock, and Lake Jackson, Seguin, New Braunfels, and Nacogdoches TX - Hastings Entertainment bookstores
