Gaelic is an ancient Celtic tongue with an oral tradition that | spans almost two thousand years and reflects a crofting lifestyle that remained virtually unchanged in all that time.
In Scotland, the tradition was cruelly suppressed toward the end of the nineteenth century while Ireland experienced similar attempts to crush the language, notably in the renaming of Gaelic place names in the second half of the nineteenth century. Scottish schoolchildren were chastised for speaking Gaelic, which was condemned as a pagan tongue. Old men and women were mocked for their charms, hymns, and incantations. Dance and song were banned. Musicians were forced to burn or hide their fiddles. The spirit of the ceilidh was broken.
Had it not been for the passionate enthusiasm of Alexander Carmichael, a wandering exciseman whose job took him around the Highlands and islands, practically all of the old lore would have been lost forever. His inspiring collection of Gaelic oral folklore, the Carmina Gadelica, was first published in 1900 and captures the spirit of a remarkable language and community aligned with nature and a culture almost unimaginably remote from that of the English and other Europeans.
He particularly captures the true depth of traditional meaning of the spirit of ceilidh in the following account:
In a crofting community, the people work in unison in the field during the day, and discuss together in the house at night. This meeting is called ceilidh — a word that throbs the heart of the Highlander wherever he be. The ceilidh is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems and ballads are rehearsed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums are put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are related and discussed. Let me briefly describe the ceilidh as I have seen it.
What follows is a touching and warm description of a village gathering in the storyteller's home, around the light of the peat fire in the middle of the floor. The people sit around, few hands being idle, as a woman spins, a man plaits a basket and a girl cards her wool. Others sew, embroider, or twist laths to hold down thatch. When the news of the day and the moods of the weather are dealt with, the storyteller is asked to perform. A tale can last an evening, or many, and when it is at last done, the audience sits and discusses the merits and demerits of the characters, before moving on to other entertainments.
Much has disappeared with those times, but the ceilidh still preserves its delightful character of being a gathering of the whole community, young and old, enjoying themselves together in a spontaneous way.
The Celtic language of this age-old tradition is permeated with untranslatables and, as the following examples show, with echoes of beliefs and customs that date back to the fourth or fifth centuries and the time of Saint Columba himself.
brae [brahk] (noun)
A deer, but also with wonderful evocation. According to context it can be: the roar of a stag, the curve of an antler, or the curve of a wave immediately before breaking.
bialag [bee-ah-lak] (noun)
A person in front of another on horseback - such a useful word that it had to be included. But what isn't clear is whether this is the person driving or the passenger!
caim [kyem] (noun)
The word means literally "a sanctuary." It's an imaginary circle made around the body with the hand. It serves as a ring of protection.
cailleach [kal-yach] (noun)
This derives from caille "a veil," and originally meant "a nun," but came also to mean "an old woman" or "hag." However, in English this term is now corrupted with associations of witchcraft or supernatural and malign activity. In Celtic mythology, the cailleach is considered as the "crone" aspect of the Triple Goddess. In a telling metaphor, the cruel winds of early April, punishing the first green shoots of the year, are seen as the work of a wild cailleach or storm goddess who wields her switch against the young plants until finally giving up in disgust and disappearing till another season. Similarly around Halloween, the cailleach appears as the winter goddess bringing the first frosts. She is one who needs to be appeased. Traditionally, the first farmer to finish harvesting would make a corn-dolly or cailleach from the straw and pass it on to the next and so on until it came to the last farmer. This farmer was obliged to keep an eye on the "old woman" until the next year's harvest.
Craic [crak] (noun)
"Where's the craic?" is the cry of any Irish person arriving in a new city. With an original meaning close to something like "chat," obviously essential to any Irish get-together, the term now means the combination of elements all adding up to a good time — fun, laughter, chatter, music, and warm company. Having the craic, or "enjoying yourself," is central to Irish life, and the phrase ceol agus craic, which means "singing and a good time," says it all. Those of Irish blood, of course, who do nothing by halves, will insist not just on craic but on having "the good crate!"
sluagh [sloo-ergh] (noun)
Literally, "the hosts of the departed." In Celtic mythology, the spirits of the departed continued the activities that they had most loved in the land of the living, especially hunting and fighting. Tales were told by those who had seen a vision of the hosts battling on a moonlit night or riding through the skies "with hounds on leash and hawks on hand" toward the farthest bournes beyond the seas.
sian [shee-ern] (noun)
An Irish word describing soft and sorrowful music full of enchantment, which can be heard coming from a fairy knoll.
goisear [go-sherr] (noun)
This word has entered modern Scottish English as "guiser" and now refers to children going door-to-door at Hallowe'en and Christmas time. But in the old tradition, the goisearan were present at all the great festivals of the year and were a band of village youth dressed up with masked faces as kings, queens, bishops, and nuns. Making as much noise as possible, they brought blessings to every house in exchange for presents. Traditionally, these offerings were carried off in a lambskin bag known as uilim to a barn where the revelers then held a large feast and a dance and invited their girlfriends.
rèiteach [rare-tchoch] (noun)
A gathering when a man would formally ask permission for a woman's hand in marriage from her father or next of kin. Over the years this event has become a more general "get together," but the word still retains the meaning of a kind of engagement party. One would say "At the reiteach" or "Are you going to the reiteach?" It is never translated into English, as there is no literal translation.