Celtic Cultural Circle is a fully constituted Not-For-Profit Organisation.
The aims and objectives of the organisation are to host and be involved in cultural events throughout the year to rekindle our Celtic heritage and educate and inspire young people and adults about our Celtic heritage. We aim to achieve this by combining diverse traditional and modern art forms that bring community together with the common aim to inspire and ignite the celebration of life.
We are strongly in favour of public events that encourage families to participate as a whole rather than people of different generations being segregated.
Our main event is the Samhuinn Fire & Music Festival, held annually on the last Saturday in October.
FESTIVAL
A festival of music, dance, storytelling and fire performance igniting ancient and modern Celtic tradition that burns with the flames of community celebrating life.
Samhuinn is a traditional Celtic festival celebrating the end of summer and preparation for the oncoming winter. It also marks the traditional Celtic New Year and is now recognised as Halloween.
We feel there is a need to challenge the modern commercialisation of Halloween. Originally this was a deeply spiritual and community ritual event. However, modern customs and practises are perceived as increasingly extreme to the point of being anti-social. This view is reflected every year by reaction from the media, the public and religious bodies. We believe this to be true within our own community and our festival has been seen by many as a refreshing and positive alternative. We offer something that has spiritual meaning, real understanding, depth and respect, as opposed to the usual modern practices of trick-a-treat and 'scary' parties that are seen as empty and insincere.
We celebrate with fire performance, fireworks, live music, storytelling, performance poetry, street theatre, drama, public ritual, healing, divination, craft stalls and also include workshops in dance, music and crafts.
As this event has evolved in response to modern practices of Halloween and takes influence from Celtic history, our intention is to create a contemporary festival that will draw community together in celebration. This non-religious event that welcomes people from all ethnic, social, political and religious backgrounds.
We aim to enable the audience to have an experiential relationship with various art forms where everyone has the ability to connect and interact in an individual and very real, emotional way with the potential to cause transformation and deeper understanding of self.
