I was visiting with my dad for a few days before coming back to Alberta. On the Friday evening, the counties of Lennox and Addington celebrated their 150th anniversary. There was a big concert on the lawn behind the courthouse that drew almost 1,000 people. It was free. Another important word in the Celtic quest. The lead performance was by Natalie MacMaster and her husband, Donell Leahy. I had to go and listen for a short while since Natalie and I had been...ahem...taught by the same fiddle instructor. She and Donell are both amazing fiddle players. I left however, when their five year old daughter came out on stage with a tiny violin and played the very first piece that I had been taught three weeks before...and played it much better than I! Time to go home!
The 150th anniversary celebration for Lennox and Addington
Natalie also told us that her uncle, Buddy MacMaster had died the day before. He was one of the great fiddle players in Cape Breton and Canada. (Natalie holds an honourary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Atlantic School of Theology, the United Church seminary in Halifax.)
Buddy MacMaster, October 18, 1924 - August 20, 2014
I rented a fiddle on Friday.
That was supposed to be the end of the fiddle comments, but....I think I forgot to share this lovely picture with you. It is a quintessential Canadian picture. Three adorable children of Chinese ethnicity playing Celtic fiddle music of a Cape Breton variety on the harbour front in Halifax. They were RAKING in the loonies and toonies! Again, playing the same piece of music Troy had been trying to teach me. I will learn that piece and then I am going to set up at the Farmer's market with an open fiddle case on a Saturday morning!
Three cute kids earning enough for fiddle lessons for the upcoming year
Ok...on to the work front (all right, how many of you read: on to the boring stuff? And stopped reading?)
The Celtic Quest...is actually one of the books I am currently reading. One of...because I usually have more than one on the go. The other one is "The World of Bede." I will tell you more about Bede next week. He is an English historian from the 8th century.
Rosemary Power writes "The Celtic Quest." In her book she provides some background on the rise of Celtic Spirituality. Celtic Spirituality is a movement that arose in the late 20th century in response to spiritual needs of the time. Rosemary is quick to point out that there is a large gap between what is accepted as Celtic Spirituality now and what can be studied as Celtic Christianity from 1500 years ago. Reading what we have left in text and poetry and song lyrics from that long ago and translating it into contemporary context is not an easy matter. Hence, some of the need to read Bede. (Don't you love it when it just naturally happens that way!)
The Venerable Bede. He brings to light some of the historical background of Celtic Christianity and he will be who I search out this coming week at St. Andrew's College in Saskatoon.
Learnings:
1. I need to look at two different things, Celtic Christianity from 1500 years ago and Celtic Spirituality that has developed in the last 30 years. What are the connections? Does the second arise from the first? Does it matter?
2. What we call Celtic could be more accurately called Gaelic. There are six languages in the Celtic language grouping. Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic (from the Isle of Man), Welsh, Cornish (from the Cornwall area), and Breton (Brittany). Most of the material that the new Celtic spirituality references comes from Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic sources.
Cuibheas air a-nis.
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