Conflicting Season Names

[kkjbk]

While looking around on the internet I found a passage that described the Celtic seasons/festivals - they are as follows;

"The remains of a bronze calendar, found in France, mentions Beltane (1st May), which commemorates the start of summer, and Lugnasad (1st August), which would have been to encourage the ripening crops. Two other festivals, mentioned in later Irish vernacular texts, probably celebrated during the Iron Age, are Samhain (November 1st) and Imbolc (February 1st). Imbolc was possibly to ensure the fecundity of the livestock whilst Samhain celebrated the end of one year and the start of the next."

These seem different from those mentioned in EB when playing as the Casse (and possibly others, but I've only played as the Casse). I just wondered where the names for the seasons in EB came from and whether these are any better.

[Malrubius]

We have: Beltane, Lugonatos, Samon, and Imbolc, pretty much the same as your names. I'd guess any differences in spelling are due to different methods of transliteration. Maybe Ranika will stop by and give an exhaustive explanation on the subject.

[QwertyMIDX]

They're alternate spellings of the same names. Lugonatos is from a votive inscription in southern France near Nantes (and presumably the same as Lugnasad), and 'Samhain' is an Irish spelling of 'Samon' or 'Samonn', which also appears in votive descriptions (though it doesn't actually say the purpose of Samon; we assume it's Samhain, Samhain being a later Irish spelling). Imbolc shows up as Imbolc in Britain, so, we're pretty sure that's a common name. Samhain earlier shows up also as Samven if one literally interprets a few ogham graves (Irish spellings change drastically after Christianity arrives).