Celtic Traditions

[singlecandle]

Did the ancient Celtic people really believe
a mixture of paganism and Christianity?
What exactly did they practice and believe?

 

[DaisyDay]

How ancient are you talking?

Paganism preceded Christianity and during the transition, customs and beliefs sometimes merge.

 

[singlecandle]

before Christianity.

 

[Armoured]

before Christianity.

Um, before Christianity the ancient Celts didn't believe a mix of paganism and Christianity, no.

Unfortunately, the Celts didn't leave much in the way of written records, so most of what we know about their religious practices comes from Greek and Roman sources, but (and this also depends on who exactly you mean by "Celt") it is generally understood that immediately before Christianity began, the Celts followed a pantheistic religion known as Druidism. What the exact beliefs, origins and practices of that religion were are highly debatable.

 

[ReverendDG]

Did the ancient Celtic people really believe
a mixture of paganism and Christianity?
What exactly did they practice and believe?

no, that was a 18th-19th century belief created out of the legend that various followers of jesus went to the british isles before the catholic church sent people there.
there is no evidence of christianity before the 4-5th century.

it was part anti-catholic and partly an assumption based on local beliefs about iconography found in britain.

also, no, before the church sent people to the british islands they worshiped their own gods.
though after the 5th century it was common to merge the old native beliefs with catholicism.
for example, saint brigit a 5th century abbess is thought to have been merged with the goddess brigit, a healing goddess of the same name.

the tuatha de danann, the gods of the celts, were slowly pushed out and survived up til now as what they called the sidhe, which we call fairies.

 

[ReverendDG]

Um, before Christianity the ancient Celts didn't believe a mix of paganism and Christianity, no.

Unfortunately, the Celts didn't leave much in the way of written records, so most of what we know about their religious practices comes from Greek and Roman sources, but (and this also depends on who exactly you mean by "Celt") it is generally understood that immediately before Christianity began, the Celts followed a pantheistic religion known as Druidism. What the exact beliefs, origins and practices of that religion were are highly debatable.

i'm assuming the OP is asking about the british celts, the bretons, the irish, scots.
since we really know less about the gauls than we do about the bretons.
by the way, i think you mean 'polytheistic' , pantheism is the belief that the universe is god. while polytheism is the belief in many gods.

also no one is sure what role druids played in the religions of the celtic tribes, since they didn't leave very many records and the only records were really from their enemies it's hard to tell what they did.
i would say 'druidism' is not a good name for the religion, maybe celtic would be better.

 

[Autumnleaf]

The Romans killed most of the druids who were the record keepers of the Celts, as well as their religious leaders. It happened on an island. The druids made quite a show to scare the Roman soldiers but the centurions kept the men in line and they slaughtered the druids.

 

[Armoured]

i'm assuming the OP is asking about the british celts, the bretons, the irish, scots.
since we really know less about the gauls than we do about the bretons.
by the way, i think you mean 'polytheistic' , pantheism is the belief that the universe is god. while polytheism is the belief in many gods.

also no one is sure what role druids played in the religions of the celtic tribes, since they didn't leave very many records and the only records were really from their enemies it's hard to tell what they did.
i would say 'druidism' is not a good name for the religion, maybe celtic would be better.

You are correct, I did indeed mean polytheistic, with a pantheon of many gods. Its a while since I've done much reading on the subject, but IIRC druidism started in northern france relatively lately, and differed from earlisr celtic religion, but I'm very hazy on specifics, sorry.

 

[Armoured]

The Romans killed most of the druids who were the record keepers of the Celts, as well as their religious leaders. It happened on an island. The druids made quite a show to scare the Roman soldiers but the centurions kept the men in line and they slaughtered the druids.

Yep, at swansea in Wales.