Strict Rituals

Even though they had to rely on oral tradition, druid ritual procedures were well-defined. There is always a particular act to signal the beginning (often a bell ringing or hand clapping), an act to consecrate the place, an act to identify the fellow participants, an act to make offerings, an act to thank the higher power, and then there is an act to close. The Lindow Man, an exhumed mummified body from a bog in Cheshire, England, was identified in 2009 by National Geographic as proof that the man was a Druidic noble sacrifice because his body displayed signs of ritual preparation despite having well-groomed fingernails and hair.

There were many of reasons to hold a ceremony, although not all of them involved offering human sacrifices. The Wheel of the Year was a set of eight annual celebrations observed by Druids. The most well-known of these is Yule, which served as their forerunner to Christmas and New Year and gave rise to the yule log tradition as well as codifying mistletoe as a component of the custom (though Druids believed it was a symbol of life instead of something to kiss under.) The Irish custom of making people walk outside and sit on earthen mounds in order to be reborn the following day was rather different.