"Southern Door's Belgians have Celtic background influence" from the June 20, 1978 Door County Advocate
By JOSIE WAUTLET
Southern Door's Belgians have Celtic background influence
By JOSIE WAUTLET
Even today, in ancient Cornwall in the British islands, a huge fire is lit at the changing of the seasons in spring. Bunches of herbs are thrown into the fire and the ancient prayer is made to the gods....May the good seeds prosper and grow, and may the bad seeds all perish in the fire. Then fires start to flicker from other hilltops as other villages do the same. Soon many fires glow across the countryside, all in memory of the ancient custom.
Has this old tradition ever been observed in your lifetime? I can remember when I was a little child some 60 years ago, that my father on the first Sunday in Lent always carried large fork-full of dry straw from the barn into the front yard and set them afire as soon as twilight arrived.
Soon the neighbors too had their little fires going. I never knew the reason for this practice, but it always intrigued me. I knew that it seemed to have some religious significance, but this practice faded away very early in my life and I never really gave it much thought. Now I find that we are descendents of the ancient Celts who were the originators of this ritual.
The Celts, or Kelts (both pronunciations are correct) lived in the land of King Arthur and the wizard Merlin. It is the land of the ancient stone circles, Celtic crosses, Druids and sacred trees.
The Celts were a group of related tribes who lived in the northernmost provinces of the English islands and included Ireland and Scotland. They gave rise to the first civilization north of the Alps about 800 years before Christ.
The Celts were energetic and very inventive. They were the first peoples to use iron for tools and weapons. It was the Celts who first introduced soap to the Romans and the Greeks. They invented chain armor such as the knights of old wore.
They were the first to make and use shoes on their horses. They also made the first handsaws, chisels, files and other tools which we still use today. They forged iron into seamless rims for their wheels and set the gauge for the railroad tracks of today. They pioneered the iron plowshare, the rotary flourmill and a wheeled harvester 2000 years before Cyrus McCormick.
The Celts were also called the Gauls. Remember Paul's letters to the Galatians? The Galatians were Gauls or Celts who had travelled and settled in Asia Minor. The Greeks called the Celts Keltoi, the Germans said Kelton, the Romans said Galli, and the French later softened it to Celti.
The Celts were known to be fierce fighters. They rode horse drawn chariots into battle and carried spears and shields highly decorated with fanciful heads. Sometimes they fought naked, believing this gave them protection from the deities while in battle. It also frightened the enemy, especially when they greased their long reddish blond hair and made it stand straight up on end.
The women attained a very high place in their society, equal to the men. They retained the right to their own property even after marriage. Sometimes they fought beside their men in battle. They were quite vain, as were the men also. They painted their faces with berry juice and wore silver bracelets and brooches. The men wore long cloaks in vivid colors and they wore trousers which surprised the Romans who wore tunics and had never seen pants before. They even had hand mirrors to admire themselves in.
The Celts crossed the English channel about 400 years before Christ. They spread and settled gradually over most of Europe, going even as far as Spain with tribes extending into northern Italy and East to the Balkan mountains.
It always baffles me as to why some people find it difficult to believe the biblical references to Jesus Christ when we know and believe the stories of the Roman conquests which were happening at about the same time. The Roman empire was spreading to far flung places when Christ was born. It was in the year 52 B.C. that the Romans fought and finally conquered Belgium in the battle of Namur after seven years of hard fighting. It has always been said that Caesar declared that the Belgae people were the bravest fighters he had ever encountered.
After the Roman legions of Caesar had conquered a region it was necessary to leave soldiers and guards behind to protect their new conquests, and so it was in Belgium too. The language of the Romans was Latin of course and with time it became mixed with the Celtic or Gaulic language of the conquered. This became the Wallon language of the people of Wallonie. This continued to be so until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. and for us is still the language we call Wallon. [Wallon is an archaic form of Walloon.]
About the year 600, the Teutonic Franks who lived to the East of Wallonie tried to take over that area. They were able to conquer the northern part of Belgium which was flat and difficult to defend. Here, they were able to exterminate the Gallic tribes, and so Frankish became the language there. This is the language we call Flemish.
According to the book "Chateau Gerard" by Harry Holbert Turney High, "The Flemings are not descended from the Belgae. So obviously the Flemish, fine people though they are, are only politically and legally Belgians, but not in the sense of Caesar. The bulk of the fathers of the Walloons by contrast, were men who saw Caesar, and whom the conqueror called Belgae and whose areas are as specifically Belgae as the Welsh are Caesar's Britons. To be more specific, these people are descended from the Belgae tribe who are mentioned in the Gallic Wars."
The Walloons call themselves "Wallon." This "Wall" syllable suggests Wales or Welsh. Indeed, educated Wallons often refer to themselves as Welsh to Americans. This Celtic "W" became a "G" in later French, so "Wall" became "Gall" which is easily recognizable as "Gaul." As Caesar said, "They are called 'Celti' in their own language, 'Gauli' in ours. The Walloons then are basically Celtic Belgae mixed with Roman colonists, with some little German infusion." (This is the end of the quote by Turney High.)
In the southwest area of Wallonie the Franks conquered but were unable to exterminate the Gauls, so that area which is France today developed their language which is a mixture of Latin with Gaulic and Frankish.
The Franks were unable to conquer, or did not settle into the more easily defended part of central Wallonie or Belgae. This part retained their Gallo Roman language mostly as it was. This is the Wallon language we still have today.
French and Wallon were no doubt caught up in the same phonetic drifts. Wallon is no broken down French but in its classic form is just as old and valid a dialect as the court language of the French kings, almost always being as close to the basic Latin, and often closer.
In Belgium there are actually five main dialects. There is the West Walloon, Central Walloon and Eastern Walloon, and then there is Flemish to the north and Picard which is spoken in the extreme northwestern part of Belgium. It is similar to the French spoken in Picardy in France.
The lower tip of Wallonie has still another patois. It is called Gamais and is about the same as the French spoken in Rheims. The national language used for all legal matters and affairs of state is French however and is the basic language used in all the schools.
It is interesting to note that each area is becoming ever more interested in preserving its own parental language. They are a proud people and hesitate to mix with others of different backgrounds. Perhaps this goes back to their having been overrun by neighboring countries so many times in their past. Belgium has never in all its history declared war on any nation yet she has frequently had to fight to survive.
Another area that has interested me was their ancient magico-religious beliefs. Many of these still linger in disguised form but some of them become a little obvious after some thought. I remember when I was a little child and someone made a face at another we would say, "If the bell in heaven would ring when you're doing that, your face would stay like that forever." I ran across this same idea in the book about the village of Chateau Gerard. There, they said, if the bells of St. Huberts would ring...St. Hubert was a Belgian saint, patron of hunters, always pictured with his hunting dogs which incidentally are the ancestors of the American bloodhounds of today.
I remember too that if you got up in a bad mood someone would surely jest that "You must have forgotten to look at your belly button." Well, to my surprise, there it was. It was thought that you would surely have a quarrel if you forgot that little morning oblation.
If you saw a spider in the morning you could expect bad news before the day was over. But if you saw a hump back person and he passed you on the left, that meant good luck. If you broke a dish you were in for bad news. We were never allowed to sing or hum at the table either, and now I know why. It too was a signal for bad news.
The moon signs were very important to these people too. They believed that any project begun under the new moon would progress, and that persons born under the new moon would be strong and active. Crops planted at that time would grow exceptionally fast too. Some people that I know still watch the moon for planting signs. Does the moon really have an effect on the growth of plants? Who am I to say?
A sneeze before breakfast meant good news was coming, and you would have a visitor if you saw a white horse. My dear old mother always expected company if two forks or two knives were set at one place on the table.
The book also states that people who were born on Good Friday were believed to have powers to heal through blessing. In my lifetime I remember certain people who were said to possess this power. Some people did go to them and reported to have had relief from such things as toothaches and severe headaches. I don't remember my family ever doing this, but there were many ways to charm away warts including rubbing with an onion and throwing the onion away over your left shoulder. All of this seems to smack a little of pure superstition and best to be avoided it seems to me.
I was surprised to read that for sprains they advised soaking in a mixture of manure and water. Was it the heat created that brought relief, or was it perhaps that the smell that anesthetized the pain? When we were little and we had a bruise, my dad would rub it with spit and smile calling it "de crouche de babar." I never did understand that but because your dad did it the hurt felt better.
Some signs we watched for were also mentioned as ancient and of Celtic origin. For instance, if it started to rain and the chickens ran for the hen house we knew that it would be a long rain; but if the chickens didn't bother to run for shelter it would be but a brief shower.
If the sunset is red, my old father still says it will be windy on the morrow. And grandfather sometimes remarked that it would rain because he had seen the "arbe d'abram." He regarded the shape of the clouds as they came over the horizon. If they branched out in treelike fashion, that was the "Tree of Abraham." He was an avid reader of the bible, but where all these signs originated, I don't know. In my childhood some of the older people were still quite superstitious. Even Halloween with its witches and goblins and fear of black cats are a throwback to the ancient Celts and their cultic type of worship. Customs do change but the folklore seems to live on in disguised forms.
The Celts believed that certain trees were sacred. For some it was the aged oak trees and for others it was the ancient lindens. They believed that Druids lived in trees and had control over their lives. They thought there were little people who lived in the forests too which probably accounts for the fairy stories and the dwarfs and goblins in our old children's stories. They believed in four leaf clovers for good luck and this brings Ireland to mind.
If your ears ring someone is talking about you, did you know that? My mother used to say "gauche binauche, dwet chaquette." That meant "left happy, right gossipy."
If snow fell on mud it meant a hard frost within three days "Del nife dessi de brou, jellei devan twe jou" is how that one was quoted. If it rained in a newly dug grave, another death would follow shortly.
Many more tales could be brought to mind I am sure, and if some of you would care to write them down and send them to me, I will make a record of them for future reference. You know, after our generation is gone, most of these old tales will be lost. Don't you think that would be a worthwhile endeavor? The Germans must have their traditions, and I know the Scandinavians have theirs. The state historical society is also interested in this project to preserve old legends. Perhaps I could help them out, with your help.
(The author's address is 1010 Buchanan, Algoma.)
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[This article was once made available on harmonfarms.info, at the url http://harmonfarms.info/history/Belgian/misc/Southern%20Door%20Belgians%20Have%20Celtic%20Background%20Influence.pdf , which functioned at least as recently as January 2024. It is down as March 11, 2024.]
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