Austinites Celebrate Celtic

Plaids and pipes were on display at Fiesta Gardens along Lady Bird Lake in Austin for the first weekend of November.  The celebrations marked the 14^th annual Austin Celtic Festival. 

            People from all around central Texas came to the two-day event to sample some of the native culture of the British Isles, Ireland, Brittany and Nova Scotia. 

            Performances were made throughout the weekend by Celtic musicians of both traditional styles, like the Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums troupe, and more modern performers such as The Prodigals.

            One of the traditional performers was Thomas Grauzer.  Grauzer uses his Celtic harp and beautiful voice to sing songs and tell stories of the old country.  He says that he likes to give his audiences a bit of folklore when he sings.

            “It’s important to know the story of the music as well as the music itself,” Grauzer said.

            Other performances such as the Highland Games dazzled their audiences with their competitors’ remarkable athleticism.  Mike Baab, the ACF Heavy Games coordinator and distinguished UT football player, demonstrated the caber toss.  A caber is wooden pole that is almost 20 feet long and can weigh up to 175 pounds.  Participants balance these behemoths, then pitch them end over end as far as they can.

            People who take their history very dear to heart aren’t hard to find at this festival.  Texas Coritani is a reenactment group that is based out of Austin and has members all over central Texas.  They displayed full village reenactments from the Celtic and Viking Iron Age on the outskirts of the festival.  All day long, the performers dressed in the historical garb of the ancient Celts and Vikings and lived in tents that are built in the exact tradition of their ancestors. 

            Bob Rafferty has been reenacting the lifestyle of the Celtic Irish at ACF for eights years in a row.  He said that before he found Irish mythology, he was learning about the ancient Greeks and Romans.

            “When I found out that my people had a history and culture that was every bit as rich if not richer, I felt so cheated,” Rafferty said.

            His love for history and mythology, fueled by his own Pagan beliefs drives him to be as accurate as possible to the ancient ways of his Celtic forefathers.  Rafferty even maintains an impressive collection of actual Bronze and Iron Age artifacts that he purchased from museum sales in Europe.

            Finally, no festival is complete without a wide array of vendors.  Things Celtic, a Celtic regalia shop based in Austin, attended the festival for its 14^th time, and has never missed a single event.  Their vendor tent was filled with glittering Celtic jewelry and exquisitely woven Scottish kilts.

            A new shop to the event was Cedar Stevens’ Natural Magick Shop.  Stevens is a practicing Pagan and uses her degree in botany to create a wide variety of incenses, oils and brews. 

            “My degree helps me use scientific method whenever I make these,” Stevens said as she lit magical smelling incense in honor of the Celtic Holiday of Samhain, a seasonal holiday which falls about the beginning of November.

            Smelling the fragrance of Stevens’ incense while watching the people dance to the sounds of the bagpipes can transport you to the homelands of these ancient people.