Keltfest 2012

How fast time goes. I had no idea it had already been fourteen days since my last post. My apologies. In my defense I've been quite busy :) But only with fun and good things :)

Music Village by Fantasymedia

Last sunday me and my Greenwood mates went to Keltfest, an annual Celtic festival here in the Netherlands. Like every year it was laid back, relaxed and joyfully pagan. :) I love Keltfest, walking around on that festival is like walking around in a community of like-minded people. Everybody is happy and relaxed and friendly!

We were very lucky in terms of the weather. They had predicted rain and rain and more rain. Which there was, just not on Keltfest. While other parts of our small country were battling the water, we had sunshine and heat. Go Keltfest! I had rained the day before though, so the terrain was one giant mudpool. Which they turned to their advantage by roping off a small portion and calling it a 'Swinepool' anyone who wanted could jump in and wrestle of just roll around XD

The Greenman by Brigid Ashwood

The plan was to perhaps follow some lectures in the big tent. They were doing a 'Greenman experience' where you would meet the Greenman in meditation. After of course some much needed information about this elusive mythological figure. Unfortunately the experience wasn't for free and since the money fairy has yet to show her face, we didn't attend. I hope to get the uportunity another day, perhaps at Castlefest...

The best part of the day was the closing concert. A band we'd never heard of; Celtica, pipes rock! And oh my, how they rocked indeed. A very pleasant surprise that had us dancing in the mud and singing along loudly. They had us laughing by their rendition of famous heavy metal songs on bagpipes. One of the women was fire poi-ing on stage and the bassist suprised everyone when his basguitar turned into a flamethrower.... which the poi woman then used to light her poi... It was awesome! We bought one cd of the two they had and it has already been played more times than I can count. We hope to see them again soon! Here, have some smoke on the water and Scotland the Brave! :D

I did buy something... I've been playing with the idea to make an ancestral shrine in our home. Not that we have room for it, but it's been in my head for a while now. So when I found this beautiful ornate Celtic skull, made from resin, I couldn't resist. Luckily it wasn't that expensive, so I had to have it! It's quite small, but very beautiful and will make an amazing center piece for the altar. I already have some ideas for the rest of the layout but we simply don't have space. So it'll have to wait until we move into a bigger house. I can't wait, I think it will be beautiful.

The piece I did here on the blog about Nehalennia and the idea of the ancestral shrine inspired me to dig deeper into my own (spiritual) ancestry. I've been searching, digging and writing about the Gods and Goddesses that we used to worship here in the Netherlands. I never knew we had this many local Gods and Goddesses. Not much is known about them, but so far I've managed to put some very interesting info together. It is in Dutch, but I'm hoping to translate it once it's done and then of course share it with you all!

Love and Leaves,
Marjolijn Ashara