The Celts were divided in different groups based on where they were located. They had their own magnificent religion made of different gods and traditions. Their leaders practiced sacrifices in specific places and belived in the after life.
The Celts were a group of Indo-European peoples allocated in Europe and Anatolia. They share the same languages, culture and religion.
There’s not a lot left about their religion but what we know has reached us thanks to the Christian monks. They wrote down so many ancient Celtic tales and Celtic traditions so that we do now know about their beliefs.
Celtic people had over 400 gods and some of them were equivalent to a lot of others. Their religion was also animistic because they believed that every part of the natural world had spirits within themselves.
Their religious leaders were the Druids, they weren’t only priests but also doctors, judges, diviner and archives of tribal law. They held rituals in particular moments based on the cycles of nature and the phases of the moon.Celtic people were used to sacrifice in order to settle good luck. During those rituals, prayers were made as well as offers like weapons, vessels and human or animal sacrifices. A well known religious practice of theirs was the Bull Feast. A bull was sacrificed and a chosen man had to eat his meat and drink his blood. After that,the chosen man, had to sleep while a few druids made some incantations. Thanks to that, in a dream, it was revealed who would be the next rightful king. This ritual lets us think about how much religion and the will of the gods was important to them.
Sacred sites, such as lakes and rivers, were believed to be a door to the otherworld.
Celtic people built their own type of temples and used megalithic structures that were there much earlier. Their temples were embellished with human heads took from their sacrifices and gods wooden statues.
The Celts believed in life after death but there wasn’t the modern concept of“behaving good or badly ”. People were buried with their personal possessions such as weapons, armour, extra clothing or jewellery.
We can now understand more about Celtic religion and be fascinated about their gods traditions, rituals and temples.
