The gate of the year

The oak tree (genus Quercus, comprising various species) had a considerable symbolic importance for the Celts. The oak forests were diffused, particularly on the continent, and it seems that some divinities were believed to inhabit in these trees. An heritage of this belief remains in the folklore of Northern England, where references could be found about fairies living into large oak trees and where most of the villages had their sacred tree, generally an oak, into which these beings had their abode. It was told that when an oak tree was felled, the tree made a desperate racket, which announced misfortune for those who made such an action. The very name of the “druids”, the Celtic priestly class, is connected to an ancient word for “oak”: this tree, on which the mistletoe grew, was particularly sacred. The mistletoe was harvested by the druids, for ritual use in curing disease and promoting human fertility (Monaghan, 2004).
The most part of the Celtic cults towards their gods was held not in artificial buildings, but in open-space areas, mainly in sacred groves, near springs or pools of water. The open spaces in the woodland, where cultic activities were held, were called nemeton, a word associated with Latin nemus, signifying a sacred grove. The Latin poet Lucanus (Pharsalia, III, 399 ff.) describes a sacred grove of the Celts, near actual Marseille, where sacred rituals were held addressed to “barbaric” divinities (hunc […] tenent […] barbara ritu sacra deum”). In the inscriptions of Roman age discovered in the Pyrenees, frequent mention is found of trees regarded as the abode of a divine presence: Deo Fago (“God of the beech”), Deo Robori (“God of the oak”) and Sexarbori Deo (il “God of the six trees”) (Mac Cana 2005).
Regarding the Germans, Tacitus maintains that “they deem it incompatible with the majesty of the heavenly host to confine the gods within walls, or to mould them into any likeness of the human face: they consecrate groves and coppices, and they give the divine names to that mysterious something (secretum illud) which is visible only to the eyes of faith” (Germania, 9). The Semnones, a Germanic population, had a profound reverence for the forest, “haunted by visions beheld by their sires and the awe of the ages”, they saw in the grove the “might of the deity” (potestates numinis), from whom they believed to owe their origin: “here where dwells the god who is lord of all things; everything else is subject to him and vassal” (Germania, 39).




Tree Symbols

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The oak tree (genus Quercus, comprising various species) had a considerable symbolic importance for the Celts. The oak forests were diffused, particularly on the continent, and it seems that some divinities were believed to inhabit in these trees. An heritage of this belief remains in the folklore of Northern England, where references could be found about fairies living into large oak trees and where most of the villages had their sacred tree, generally an oak, into which these beings had their abode. It was told that when an oak tree was felled, the tree made a desperate racket, which announced misfortune for those who made such an action. The very name of the “druids”, the Celtic priestly class, is connected to an ancient word for “oak”: this tree, on which the mistletoe grew, was particularly sacred. The mistletoe was harvested by the druids, for ritual use in curing disease and promoting human fertility (Monaghan, 2004). The most part of the Celtic cults towards their gods was held not in artificial buildings, but in open-space areas, mainly in sacred groves, near springs or pools of water. The open spaces in the woodland, where cultic activities were held, were called nemeton, a word associated with Latin nemus, signifying a sacred grove. The Latin poet Lucanus (Pharsalia, III, 399 ff.) describes a sacred grove of the Celts, near actual Marseille, where sacred rituals were held addressed to “barbaric” divinities (hunc […] tenent […] barbara ritu sacra deum”). In the inscriptions of Roman age discovered in the Pyrenees, frequent mention is found of trees regarded as the abode of a divine presence: Deo Fago (“God of the beech”), Deo Robori (“God of the oak”) and Sexarbori Deo (il “God of the six trees”) (Mac Cana 2005). Regarding the Germans, Tacitus maintains that “they deem it incompatible with the majesty of the heavenly host to confine the gods within walls, or to mould them into any likeness of the human face: they consecrate groves and coppices, and they give the divine names to that mysterious something (secretum illud) which is visible only to the eyes of faith” (Germania, 9). The Semnones, a Germanic population, had a profound reverence for the forest, “haunted by visions beheld by their sires and the awe of the ages”, they saw in the grove the “might of the deity” (potestates numinis), from whom they believed to owe their origin: “here where dwells the god who is lord of all things; everything else is subject to him and vassal” (Germania, 39).