The celts were an ancient people who dominated much of Western , Central , Eastern Europe and Asia Minor in the 1st millennium bc, giving their language, customs, and religion to the other peoples of that area.

The first historical recorded encounter of a people displaying the cultural traits associated with the Celts comes from northern Italy around 400 BC, when a previously unkown group of barbarians came down from the Alps and displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley, a displacment that helped to push the Etruscans from history's limelight. The next encounter with the Celts came with the still young Roman Empire, directly to the south of the Po. The Romans in fact had sent three envoys to the beseiged Etruscans to study this new force.

celt snap-shot, click on the photocamera to know more about those people

Celts had a fight against Romans because during a meeting -for discussing about a peace offer by Etruscans- Quintas Fabius killed one of the Celtic tribal leaders. Celts required to Rome's government a right punishment for the Fabius's action, but the Romans denied it because of Fabius's family was powerful. The Celts saw this as a mortal insult and a host marched south to Rome, in this occasion Rome withstood a great humiliating defeat -probably the biggest one they ever had. The Roman defeat was due to Brennus -celts' leader- which solved in a brillant way a roman attempt of cheating on the wieght of the gold tribute they had to give.

Arianhod - the celtic goddess of full moon or silver wheel
Click on the pic of Aranhod to check the page about Gods and Goddesses, else click on the link 'Gods and Goddesses'

Celts were pagans, they believed in the existence of Gods and of Goddesses, there have been found about 300 names for them (in the whole celtic world, not just here). The most important figure in Celtic society were the Druids. They were priests and priestesses, and they task to make understand to their peoples the divine aspect of the daily life (dispater).
The word Druid also known as Druida in italian, Druì in irish, Dryw in welsh & Druides in latin has celtic origins. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus, 23/24-79 A.D.) believed it to be a cognate with the Greek work "drus," meaning "an oak." "Dru-wid" combines the word roots "oak" and "knowledge" ("wid" means "to know" or "to see" - as in the Sanskrit "vid"). The oak (together with the rowan and hazel) was an important sacred tree to the Druids. In the Celtic social system, Druid was a title given to learned men and women possessing "oak knowledge" (or "oak wisdom").
They were a real élite of intellectuals, with a deep knowledge in esoteric science and in natural & herbs field.

Druids were divided in two 'castes':

• VATES: they were experts in holy matters, in medicine and in white and back magic.
• BARDI: they were the "historical memory" of their peoples, they created and archived litterature, mythology -epic- and music.

In celtic culture everything natural was sacred, rivers and lakes which were particularly sacred were called "SID NECHTAIN".- Neptune, the roman God of the Sea takes name from it. They venerated life cycles from the death associated with winter to the rebirth represented by spring; the power of life was represented from all-year green plants like 'holly'. The rituals were made to celebrate life and nature (represented by Gods and Goddesses), they were not oriented to evocate evil powers or satan, like often bias let people think. The rituals were made by Vates, the men were dressed with long tunics and had long hair and beard, the women were naked and their bodies were painted in blue & black.