Grianstad an Gheimhridh (Winter Solstice) and Hogmanay

Fàs is gnàths is toradh
growth, tradition, success 

On Hogmanay morn, we gather water from under the bridge, which became
"a dead and living ford" the first time we brought a deer carcass across,
and which has now witnessed the passage of several of our beloved dead. 
photo copyright ©2014 kpn

The winter snows have come, the nights are long and cold. We gather with our loved ones and hold each other close.

Yes, we've made more Gaol Naofa videos :)  Annie took point on these, and we have her lovely photos from Newgrange and other sacred sites in Ireland and Scotland. For those of Scottish heritage who may not have known why secular/calendar New Year's Eve is a big deal in our families of origin, we have the answer: Hogmanay.

Hogmanay is a time for saining the house and welcoming in the New Year. While the dour Celtic mindset supports the idea of beginning the year at the falling darkness of Samhain, there is something about the Winter Solstice sunrise that lights a spark in my heart: The longest night of the year is broken by the rising sun, shining down the long passage at Brú na Bóinne, bringing light to the ancestors and announcing that now the days will grow longer, bit by bit, until warmth and green return to the land.

As a people who see time as a circle, and spirit as eternal while only matter rises and falls, dies and is born again, I'm not particularly interested in the debates about which day is "The Celtic New Year." Arguments can be made for pretty much any point in the cycle, depending on one's work, where one lives, and which deities and spirits are most important to us. 

The phrase  "Fàs is gnàths is toradh (Growth, custom, and fertility)" is traditionally said by the head of the household as they bring a twig from a local fruit-bearing tree inside to the breakfast feast. It is customary to sain one another and entire house at this time, with water from "a dead and living ford" (a watercourse over which both the living and dead pass), and to fill the house with so much juniper smoke that everyone begins to cough. This means that all your smoke alarms will also be going off. I consider it part of the festivities. But any of the alarms that are hooked into a security system will need to be turned off. Trust me, your local firefighters will appreciate being spared the false alarm. If you forget and they show up anyway, you can consider it a bizarre variation on first-footing. Make sure to offer them abundant hospitality.

As everyone is coughing and the alarms are blaring, it is time to fling open the doors and windows and welcome in the brisk, cold air of New Year's morning. We do a brief welcome and prayer in Gaelic at each door and window we fling open, welcoming the household's guardian spirits and the qualities we hope for in the coming year. It is customary at this time for the hearthkeeper of the household to offer everyone a nip of whisky. As a sober household, we use strong, alder-roasted or hazelnut coffee and espresso chocolate.

Then everyone sits down to a big breakfast, which symbolizes the abundance we hope for in the coming year.

Good Hogmanay to our Gaol Naofa family and extended community!
Fàs is gnàths is toradh!

For an abundance of lore and more suggestions for celebrations, see Annie's collection of links to her articles and research. 

 

Samhain

And we have... another video. This time on Samhain, with songs, poems, prayers and activities:



Annie did a good writeup about the videos, so I'll just send you her way. We also have some updates on the Gaol Naofa page.

 Blessed Samhain to you all!

The Western Isles

Here is a fabulous little film, a true treasure from the archives.

Set in the Hebrides during WWII, it features Gàidhlig speakers, some lovely waulking songs (Òran Luaidh), and sumptuous footage of the sea and islands. With the focus on a household who make Harris tweed, those in our communities who carry on the spinning and weaving traditions should enjoy this as well.


Read more about the film here.

Moran Taing to Tobar an Dualchais for sharing this!

The òran luaidh are a great source of inspiration to those of us with women's circles. Their call and response style, with a woman leading with improvised verses, and a group of women repeating the chorus, were historically used to share gossip, community lore, and personal stories. Traditionally, they were for women only, though some modern language preservation groups have everyone sing the songs now. Such as in this version of an òran luadh, adapted for instrumentation and a mixed group:

Karen Matheson: "Chuir m'Athair Mise Dha'n Taigh Charraideach" (còmhla ri "Seudan a'Chuain")


For both Gaelic Polytheists and Gaelic Christians, this kind of structure is also used for some types of prayer and ceremony. It's a specifically Gaelic women's approach, yet the form is also found in the song-prayers of a number of different animistic cultures. For more on prayers that take this form, check out the latter volumes in particular of the Carmina Gadelica (Gàidhlig: Ortha nan Gàidheal). The full set of the Carmina is expensive, but there is also interlibrary loan. Most good University libraries have a copy, and it's essential to any Gaelic studies program. The first volumes are available online at a few sites, as well.

The article above mentions the film, I Know Where I’m Going!, also shot in the Hebrides (but in black and white), and featuring our beloved Coire Bhreacain, Cauldron of the Hag. (English: the Corryvreckan Whirlpool.) I Know Where I’m Going! is also interesting for its footage of the isles and sea, but focuses more on the protagonist and her romantic life than Gaelic culture. Still, worth checking out if you like quirky old movies.


photo by russ baum

ACGA Immersion Weekend, 2010

An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach (ACGA) presents its 14th Annual Scottish Gaelic Immersion Weekend, held for the fourth time in Colorado and the second time in Colorado Springs, from Thursday June 3 – Sunday June 6, 2010.

"This event will feature some of the best Scottish Gaelic instructors from Cape Breton and the United States. The immersion weekend is a unique opportunity for learners of Scottish Gaelic to come together with more advanced and native speakers in both a classroom setting and informal gatherings. Whether you are a new learner with no experience or an advanced speaker, the immersion weekend will provide opportunities to speak Gaelic in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere."

Instructors this year include Donnie MacDonald, Mòrag Burke and Caroline Root.

More info: http://www.acgamerica.org/events-1/immersion-weekend/copy_of_2009-immersion-weekend-colorado-springs-co

Hogmanay 2009/2010

Sun Goddess, Hogmanay Street Festival, Edinburgh 2005
Hogmanay - the Scottish celebration of New Year's - incorporates the older, Gaelic traditions of Samhain, as well as the Norse celebrations of Yule. Bonfires, purification (saining), and taking of omens for the new year (First Footing) are common customs.

In the darkest time of the year, we welcome the returning light with fires in the fields and the streets, praises to the returning sun, and welcoming the light into our homes and our hearts. Like at Brú na Bóinne in Ireland, the ancestors further up the coast in Scotland also aligned the megalithic cairns at Maeshowe with the midwinter sun, which illuminates the inner chambers at only this time of year. After the longest night, the light returns, and the ancestors are awakened as the sun enters the earth. Fire without, and fire within. Fàilte ort féin, a ghrian nan tràth, 'S tu siubhail ard nan speur...

Maeshowe, Orkney, Scotland. Photo from Orkneyjar
Hogmanay.net is full of links to activities, including the burning of the Clavie and the ever-popular Fireballs Ceremony, which for those who can't make it will once again be streamed live over the net from the festivities in Stonehaven.

Fireballs Ceremony, Stonehaven High Street, 2003. Photo by Mr. Purple

Via Rudy at ACGA, and the crew at Clì Gàidhlig: The Hogmanay programme anns a' Ghàidhlig will be available worldwide for the first 24 hours of January 1st. The programme can be accessed on BBC Alba's website.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr agus Slàinte Mhath a h-uile duine!

Faclair Dwelly air Loidhne!

Students and speakers of Gaelic, as well as anyone interested in Gaelic culture, will be pleased to discover that Dwelly's Dictionary is now available online. Dwelly's is not only a language resource, but is brimming with folklore and cultural bits. Definitely an essential, and now in searchable form.

Anns a' Ghàidhlig: Am faclair mòr Gàidhlig - Beurla aig Dwelly air an lìon

and In English: The online version of Dwelly's great Scots Gaelic - English dictionary

Language Preservation: Scotland, Ireland, and America

To preserve the languages of our ancestors, to pray in their native language  - the language of the spirits - it is necessary for the passion for the language to be carried on by the next generations. Here are a few examples of younger people doing good work, from Alba (Gàidhlig), Éire (Gaeilge), and America (multiple Native tongues):

Scottish Gaelic




Ireland: Will the Irish Language Survive?




An award-winning documentary filmed and produced by the Norman High School Native American Club. It examines the endangered languages of Native Americans through the eyes of the Elders.



Norman OK students' film courtesy of newsok.com

And in Gaelic news...

Petition to make BBC Alba available via Freeview

Sign the petition if you want to be able to watch the Scottish Gaelic TV channel via Freeview, or if you just want to make the channel available to more people, period. At present, access to the channel is limited according to your geographical location, or whether you have access to Sky TV.

(repost from Debs at Living Tradition)

And on the other side of the pond, Liam Ó Caiside has started a blog for the US National Mòd: A’ Seinn Còmhla
The Blog of the U.S. National Mòd: Celebrating Scottish Gaelic Song, Music, Language & Culture.

Moran Taing, a Liam!

The Launch of BBC Alba

BBC Alba, television companion to Radio nan Gàidheal, kicked off in September with a broadcast of a version of Runrig's song, Alba, sung by a number of Gaelic singers.



Like Radio nan Gàidheal, this will provide excellent opportunities for the learning, practicing, and preservation of the Gaelic language.

Moran Taing to Debs at Living Tradition for passing this one along.

Help needed to get Gaelic language film to Oscars

The makers of the Gaelic-language film Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle are trying to get the film submitted for Oscar consideration. However, BAFTA is refusing to submit non-English films, despite protests.

The film makers also have a MySpace page, with info on where you can see the film.

This is from their blog:

PLEASE REPOST

It's working! BAFTA are coming under pressure from all sides. The Director and Producer of Seachd appeared on news programmes on TV and radio last week, questions have been raised in the Scottish Parliament and hundreds of individuals have begun to petition BAFTA to overturn their decision to neglect to put foward any non-English British films for the the Best Foreign Language category of the Oscars.

WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE PETITION IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY

Here are a few articles published around the world in the past couple of days: Variety, The Guardian, The Sunday Herald, Scotland On Sunday

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SEND AN EMAIL REGISTERING YOUR DISAPPROVAL AT BAFTAs DECISION...

Of 18 Western European countries invited by the Academy to put non-English language films forward for the Oscars, the UK is the only one to fail to do so.

BAFTAs decision is sensless and really could not have been made on some measure of the "quality" of the film, given the strong early reviews we have had (“excellent” The Sunday Times, “breathtaking” BBC, “tender, graceful…gorgeously-realised” The Herald, “worth shouting about” The Scotsman, “dramatic, funny and spectacular” The List, and “an astonishing production” Eye For Film). And surely they wouldn't have put forward such obviously English language turkeys as they have in recent years if quality really was the issue?

BAFTA is an institution designed to promote British film - in whatever language - and their decision feels dangerously close to censorship and it will mean - ultimately - that less people will get to see the film in the UK internationally.

YOU CAN HELP CHANGE THAT...

We have been able to gather a great deal of support to help overturn their decision within the film industry in the UK, and also from the Academy who have written to BAFTA asking for an explanation. And we have just learned that this issue is on the agenda to be debated in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday this week.

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP...

Finola Dwyer is the Chair of the BAFTA committee that neglected to put any non-English language British films forward. Her email address is: finola@finoladwyerproductions.co.uk

Amanda Berry is the Chief Exceutive in BAFTA. Her email address is: amandab@bafta.org

We invite you to email Finola and Amanda to let them know IN YOUR OWN WORDS what you think of BAFTAs decision not to any non-English British film forward for the Oscars.

I have received many emails asking when the film will be on release in America, Canada, Europe, Australia and all over the world. If you are able to email, we'll have a far greater chance of getting to you!

MORAN TAING (MANY THANKS) IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP!

The cast and crew of Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle

cross-posted a bit

Harry Potter anns a' Ghàidhlig

For the past 10 years readers and speakers of Gaelic, as well as Bòrd na Gàidhlig, have been asking Bloomsbury Publishing to print a Gàidhlig version of the Harry Potter series.

I have heard that a translation of the first book was begun, but for some reason it stalled out. The first book was scheduled for publication in December 2006, but more recently Bloomsbury has stated they have no plans to proceed with publication.

I know that qualified translators have come forward to help, but for some reason nothing is happening.

We have been urged to contact Bloomsbury about it if we want to see any progress on the matter. You can e-mail them at publicity@bloomsbury.com

A few reasons you can give them for why they should publish the books: We'll buy them. They would be helping preserve and revitalize the Gaelic language. They would be providing incentive for children learning Gaelic in school, or who hail from Gaelic-speaking areas, to read. And of course, because we'll buy them.

The Harry Potter books have already been published in 67 other languages, including Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic), Basque, Welsh, and Frisian; and even in languages which have far fewer speakers than Scottish Gaelic, such as Faroese, Greenlandic, and dead languages including Ancient Greek and Latin.

Thanks to the members of Fòram na Gàidhlig for some of this information.

cross-posting encouraged (but don't be obnoxious about it ;-))