The holy days.

Here I will talk about reconstructed Gaulish holidays and those celebrated by Romans and many of the provinces' citizens. The holy days help us connect to the Divine, the seasons, and the world around us and remind us of all these things. They allow us to step out of our mundane existence into a world that is more than us. I will discuss how I deal with the holy days and also contextualise them for someone living in the South Hemisphere.

An example of the holidays (highlighted and bolded holidays are clickable):

Cintugiamos. This is the start of Winter and occurs two first-quarter moons before the winter solstice. On this holy day, we celebrate the ancestors and Ogmios as the ancestor of the Gauls.

Giamolitus. This holy day is the Winter feast, a time to come together with friends and family to bring warmth. It is celebrated on the full moon nearest to the Winter solstice. This holy day is given in honour of Tarvos, Esus and the World Tree, Drus.

Uisonnâ anatiâredo. This is the spring holiday of our tradition and is seen as the returning of the souls of Drus (the World Tree) and Tarvos Trigaranus. It is a time of thanks, celebration of the returning of the sun and the souls of our beloved Gods Tarvos and Drus.

Dessumibiioni. This is the autumn holiday of our tradition, it is a time of preparation and thanks for the seasons harvest. It is dedicated foremost to Esus, but Tarvos and Drus are given honour in this holy day as well.

The Feast of the Three Gauls/Kalends of August. This holiday took place on the 1st of August/Kalends of August in Lyon, with sixty leaders from the Three Gauls coming to celebrate Rome and the divine spirit (numen) of the Augustus family and Dea Roma (the Goddess of Rome). The celebration may also have been in honour of God Lugus! The Feast of the Three Gauls is a quintessential Gallo-Roman holy day. For us (this tradition), it is a time to honour the genius of the Three Gauls, sixty tribes and the Concilium Galliarum, as well as the Deuos Lugus!

The Kalends. These are the first days of each calendar month and a time to offer to Janus for the month to come, as it is a time of transition, and he oversees change.