Long, long ago, in a country far, far, away there lived a family of giants who walked all the known lands …

Isn’t that the way all good fairy tales start? Like most fairy tales, this story is yet another piece of oral tradition that has a hard core of truth.

Over two thousand years ago, the Celts were a huge population through Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Although they loved fighting for the sheer joy of honest battle, they never used their combat supremacy to build empires or found dynasties. They were equally happy to fight amongst themselves and their tribes were only linked by language, family honour, and a religion based on respect for nature and its energies.

The Celts believed in reincarnation which is probably what made them bold fighters and so audacious that the Celtic tribes twice invaded ancient Rome. The story of the disorganized Celts invading the capital of the powerful Roman Empire to avenge an insult is a good old Celtic tale about fighting and family honour, that has been told around the fire for a good many years.

Physically the Celts were a tall race and often blonde because they washed their hair with lime which not only bleached it, but made their hair stand on end something like a cockatoo’s crest. It must have been a fearsome sight for a civilised Roman soldier to be expecting civilised warfare amongst civilised men with civilized rules and regulations and instead to be confronted by a mob of screeching human cockatoos where the whole extended family came along to either to join in the battle or to yell encouragement from the sidelines. It is also an interesting reflection on our current fashion for spiked hair and bad bleach jobs - the next time you see a teenager having a bad hair day, just remember that perhaps that teenager is simply honouring their ancestors by copying their hairstyle.

Both men and women were warriors: perhaps the Celts could now be recognized as the forerunners of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, except that I don’t think the Celts were ever politically correct. I suspect that it is more that the Celts did not waste resources and so were one of the few races to give their goddesses equal footing with their gods.

This respect carried over into Celtic society, and as a result Celtic women had rights of property and person giving women status within their society. Children belonged to their mothers and inheritance passed quite sensibly through the female line. Priestesses were honoured and women were breadwinners as well as mothers and had equal rights with men. This belief did not appear to weaken the society as the old Celts were one of the fiercest, most spiritually advanced races of the Old World.

Both sexes wore heavy bronze, silver or gold armament and ornaments with intricate designs in the metal; often with their animal totem to repel enemies. They were skilled smiths and armourers who worked first with bronze and then in iron. Woodworking, pottery making and weaving were highly developed and for illiterate warriors they showed an unexpected appreciation for music, poetry and philosophy.

Despite their casual lifestyle, the Celts placed a high value on cleanliness. They loved jewellery and bright clothing, and wore a long cloak in winter described as being checked and striped and from the description sounding a lot like a precursor of the Scottish tartans.

As well as being aggressive and fond of war, the Celts were hot-blooded and party-minded. If you could only trace back the DNA, I suspect you could truthfully name the Celts “The Fathers of Europe”. I can fully appreciate why St Paul felt the need to admonish the Celts in his Epistles. At that time Christianity had made only very limited inroads into the riotous, hard-drinking brawl that was the Celtic lifestyle. The blessed and puritanical Paul would have found the average, everyday Celt obnoxious.

Julius Caesar defeated the last Celtic army in France in 57 BC. From that time on the Celtic civilization gradually lost power and dominion over their lands. Over the years the Celts gave up their territories to Romans, Germans, Saxons and Angles. They withdrew to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany, which are today the only officially recognized Celtic regions.

Who we are now

However, the Celtic family has since spread throughout the world, especially the new world, and we've taken our stories and thereby our culture with us. If you'd like to know where we live, just look at any atlas from Victorian days and see how much of the land mass is coloured red to show the old British Empire. The east coast of North America follows Celtic traditions from the old days. Just watch the TV news in March and you’ll see that everyone in New York in the States is as Irish as paddy’s pigs on St Pat’s day.

In October you’ll notice that Halloween is a big holiday with everyone, not just the kiddies, getting dressed up in scarey costumes. Halloween is just a modern day celebration of Samhainn, the Celtic new year, the most magical time of the year, when those who have gone before and those yet to be born are invited to walk among the living. It’s interesting to note how many peoples around the world allocate a day during the autumn of their year to honour their ancestors and to feast with their dead. Even in modern Australia, we set aside an autumn day in April to honour our fallen warriors on Anzac Day.

I am an Australian - and proud of it - but my ancestors are Celts. Like the Australian Aborigine, the knowledge and the cultural heritage is transmitted by word of mouth. This oral tradition, which saved the Irish language in the hedge schools when the British banned the speaking of the Gaelic, is what also saved the culture that unites today’s Celts. Even though we’re taught not to believe them, we still gather around the fire to tell the old stories of gods and gàis, of heroes and of honour, of myths and magic and mayhem and so pass on the traditions and knowledge of our people.

The other intangible is something of an attitude - perhaps we could call it Celtitute - it’s the inner knowing of the Celt as to who we are. It’s like a racial memory of a time when gods walked the land; when men and women were equal; when we actually watched and listened to the animals to gain knowledge; when spirituality wasn’t something to be sold at weekend seminars or paid lip service for an hour and a half on Sunday but a truth to be lived daily.

Celtitude is also a racial pride. If you have Celtic blood you are aware of it. I ran a Celtic Crafts market stall once a fortnight in Townsville and my very first customer for her Celtic astrology was a lady who looked Aboriginal but who introduced herself proudly as “one-quarter Celt” from an Irish grandfather.

I can understand her family pride because I share it. I also know from my own personality that I can plod along being a good citizen, keeping within the law and the budget, when all of a sudden the hidden Celt in me yells “Ah, booger this, let’s have a hooley!” and it’s headlong into party time.

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The above is an excerpt from Myths, Magic & Mayhem: The Celtic Experience, originally written as a talk prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Effective Speaking course at James Cook University in tropical North Queensland.

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