I've heard the Celts celebrated the winter and summer solstice, and that Christianity took over already existing events, but I'm wondering if they regularly celebrated other occasions?
From research into the Romans I've found that resources are limited on Celtic culture, but is there any information available on their festivals and what these celebrations consisted of?
I would love to hear about the Celtic cultures in Gaul or Britannia just before Caesar's conquests, but don't want to limit the question to a period that we don't know much about, again any information about this culture would be fascinating to read.
Thank you in advance!
The four major feast days of the Irish calendar are Lugnasadh, Imbolc, Samhain, Beltaine.
There is also the Coligny Calendar which lists festive occasions, some of which run over several days. There is debate over the relationship of Samonios in the calendar and the Samhain (the mh has a w sound) from the Irish tradition.
They likely celebrating other days too and perhaps some of the Saints' days like St Bride's day represent a day to celebrate the goddess Brigid. Her feast day is February 1st which coincides with the pagan festival of Imbolc - which the goddess Brigid was associated with.
I say February 1 as modern convention has tied down these feast days but they were originally moveable feasts like Easter. The dates of the feasts were determined by the phase of the moon and there is debate over that too.