The bearers and disseminators of Celtic culture in the Czech, Moravian-Silesian and Slovak (western) areas were descendants of the first Celtic waves that came to us sometime around 8. century BC The Tito Celts settled in the highlands and foothills of the mountains, in the forested areas of the upper basins of our rivers.

Celts - the native inhabitants of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia

It was a people bringing with them already crystallized spiritual culture, a solid social organization and, at that time, very advanced technical knowledge and skills. The main word was the priesthood elite - the druids who oversaw the military and administrative nobility. The simple people "ambakté" were led and educated in the spirit of high social and spiritual ethics to hard work, mutual tolerance, obedience of chiefs and druids, and the worship of the gods.

The Druids oversaw the ambacte to have enough resources to live in a satisfied and dignified life and not to be abused or oppressed by the nobility. The second Celtic, the so-called "Latino" wave of Celts, arrives in Bohemia around 5. century BC from the Western Celtic domain of the mighty King Ambigat. At that time the Western Celts multiplied so that they found it difficult to find a living. At that time King Ambigat decided that part of the Celtic population would go east and southeast. By running the eastern column, he assigned his nephew Segoves (Segorixe) and the target area of ​​the Hercyn Forest was assigned to him. The second column was led by the nephew Beloves and was assigned to him in the area of ​​Italy.

These "Latinsky" Celts, who entered Bohemia, were primarily the Battles, Volk-Tektosága entered Moravia, and Kotini settled in western and central Slovakia. These newly arrived Celtic tribes had for that time a typical organization of military democracy on the march. They apparently did not overlap with the older Celts and settled in the lowlands and basins of Bohemian and Moravian rivers.

Around the year of 10-8 BC the Battles and other tribes of the Latin Celtic colonization from Bohemia were displaced by Markomans and from South Moravia to Kvada. To expel the Celtic population from the first colonization wave, Markomani and Kwad were unable to do so for lack of time and power. Markomani did not last for thirty years in Bohemia, and after two heavy defeats, they sought protection under the wings of the Romans. Moravian quails also leave about 50 years.

So the end of 1. century, the area of ​​Bohemia, Central and Northern Moravia, and Western Slovakia purified from the Germanic tribes, but also from the Celtic "Latino" tribes of the Fight and the Volk-Tektoság. In western Slovakia, the Kotins in the mountainous areas were kept, from the other territories they were forced into the Low Tatras and especially to the Slovak Rudohory.

These lands have kept the Celts until the arrival of the Nyss. Many historians believe that the Western Slavs - the Czech tribes entered the Bohemian Basin, which was only slightly populated. It is a big mistake because they omitted the persistent presence of the "Hallstatt" Celts.

The arrival of the Nyss - tribes of Western Slavs

Nymen tribes entering Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia approximately half of 6. century are the Celtic old-timers accepted in a friendly and open arms as blood relatives.

The Nile tribes with the Celts soon coalesce, and a new nation is born, in whose veins flow the same part of Celtic and Nye blood. The ancient Celtic oaths have come to terms with the arrival of the Eastern people, with whom the Celts will create a nation of gods destined to lead the spiritual task when time comes.

The merging of the Celts and the Nyss facilitated the fact that they were very much like brother brothers. They were stately, blond, and blue, blue-eyed eyes, brave, courageous and stubborn in battle. The Celts and the Nyss had good weapons, but they only reached them in the extreme case when the enemy did not understand another argument. The Nyssas and Celts forced to fight overwhelmed by opponents of bravery, toughness and martial arts.

The close nature was manifested in the great popularity of the taverns connected with the amusing narrative, they were chattering and had the ability of great imagination. They liked to accept novices and readily learned new knowledge and skills. They loved glory, colorful clothes, but also wine and beer from barley and hops, which they called "korma".

However, they have lived on religious and ethical traditions and burned their dead. Celts and Nyssey had equal rights with men, fighting with them and taking part in the banquet without entering their femininity. The Celts often had exceptional abilities that they used as priestesses - drusades in healing, divination of future events and worship.

By merging the Celts with the Nyss, their descendants took over the many traditions, myths and rumors that have survived to this day. Only modern archaeological research confirms their Celtic origin. It is, for example, an old legend about the "Bull Rock" cave in the Moravian Karst, a legend about the "Golden Horse" in the karous region of Beroun, but also the legend about the sleeping troops in the Blaník mountain and other rulers traded among the ordinary people, the origin of the reputation was forgotten .

Beautiful and somewhat mystical is the forgotten legend of the Vysehrad rainbow and the golden throne of the gods today. Numerous stigmas of ancient Celtic culture are still found today in our traditions that we have taken from our ancestors.

Celts celebrated two major holidays during the year: "Beltine" and "Samain". The feast of Beltine was dedicated to the beginning of the warm season of the year, when it began to expel cattle for summer pasture. He met at the turn of the last April and the first of May. Large fires were made on the hills where the young people jumped, and cattle were brought near the fire. The clear touch of the flames was to burn past sins, and to ward off wounds and witches.

Even after my childhood, 1 is in the countryside at night. May "burned the witches", which meant the ignition of large fires on the nearest hill near the village. The youth cheerfully crawled through the high flames with a ragged rat, the old ones reheating in the closest proximity to the fire. Only cattle did not navigate around the fire.

Today, this ancient tradition has almost disappeared. The Feast of Samain is the Celtic New Year and celebrated in early November. The exact day of Samain was determined by the druids according to astronomical observations. According to ancient tradition on the day of Samain, the dead come among the living to enjoy their relatives and friends, the sleeping troops come out of the sacred hills, and as ghosts they train and prepare for the fighting.

On the day of Samain, living candles lit candles, which according to the tradition of the soul of the dead heat up. It is obvious, then, that Samain is essentially the same with our feast of Dušičky. The lesser Celtic feast was Lugnasad and Imbolc. Lugnasad celebrated 1. August, celebrating the beginning of the harvest and the crop harvest. In most of our regions, he fell into oblivion. On the other hand, Imbolc defined the divide between winter and early spring, and celebrated in early February, when the first storms were coming. So we can identify Imbolc with our Mormons.

Toponyma taken from the Celts

In addition to the Celtic traditions, which are closely related to elements of character, the Celtic anonyms combine us with Celtic anonymities. Toponym is the name of a natural or artificial object in a fixed land, which the following populations take from the previous ones. I will mention some of the most famous mountain toponymes: Sudetenland - translated by the Bohemian Mountains, including the narrower concepts of the Giant Mountains, the Lusatian Mountains and the Jizera Mountains. In a broader sense, the Jesuits and the Orlické Mountains are also included in the Sudetenland.

The Hercyn Forest - sometimes also the Arky Mountains, which is in the narrower sense of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, is a mountain range extending from the arch of the Danube in Germany to the Danube in Austria (Bohemian Forest, Šumava, Novohradské Mountains). The identification of the Hercyn Forest with today's Bohemian-Moravian Highlands is evoked on the basis of the writings of Klaudio Ptolemai. Oskobrh - the cluster of Celtic name Askiborgh and the derived name of the Aski-Borghin Mountains / Iron Mountains.

Much more numerous are the toponyms of the rivers: Iser - Jizera, Elbis - Labe, Oagara or Oharagh - Ohře, Foldah - Vltava, Oltavah - Otava, Dujas - Dyje, Danuvia - Dunaj, Msa or Mesa - Mže.

The name of the town Loun comes from the Celtic Luna / meadows /, the name Náměšť originates in celtic nemethon / sacred space reserved, sanctuary /. The name of the Moravian metropolis seems to come from the Celtic name Eborodunon, the name of Sušice from the Celtic Sutnakatun. The relatively frequent names of the towns that contain the Tyn strain originate in Celtic Dun or Tun, which means a market place.

According to tradition, Celtic origin has many other names of mountains and other natural objects, such as Říp, Šárka, Motol and others.

On the contrary, the Celtic name of the Sumava - Gabreta - fell into oblivion. It is probably little known that many of our traditionally successful business lines have already been around 8 on our territory. Century BC was brought and developed by the Celts. In such fields, we are not original, but we draw from the generous treasury of Celtic ancestors.

It is usually claimed that our glassmaking is the child of the Venetian glassworks. In fact, it's different, because knowledge of glass production and processing has come to us with Celts. A number of sources show that there were two Celtic glass manufacturing centers where production at a very good technical level was already at 1. century BC One of the centers was Bohemia, the other was Venice.

Our famous South Bohemian bagpipers will surely be interested in the fact that the invention of sausages and games belongs to them again to the Celts and has spread to three areas: Scotland, Brittany and southwest Bohemia. In Bohemia, the dyadness has not only been preserved to this day, but has adopted a distinctive and authentic local color.

With the Kelty, mining and metal production came to us. The Celts were able to extract gold, but also copper, silver and iron ores, to produce a variety of alloys. Made of steel, they produced excellent swords, helmets and armor already in 5. century BC, and only the production and processing of iron were taken over by the Germans. Iron Ores were mined by the Celts both in the Iron Mountains and in the Ore Mountains in the Chomutov region. Tin ores from seagrasses and sewage were obtained mainly in Bohosudova district near Teplice and in the western part of Slavkovský les. The extraction sites of the silver ores are not well known, but probably the Březové mountains near Příbram and Kutná Hora.

The technology of beer production and the ways of its cultivation are brought to us again by the Celts, with the production of barley malt, the cultivation of hops, barley and grapevine. However, some warmer varieties of grapevine come to South Moravia and southern Slovakia with Roman legions.

However, wine growing and the production of wine in Bohemia never reached such an extension as the production of beer, wine was preferable to mead.

Rumors, myths and myths - their common roots

A similarity to toponyms has rumors, legends, and myths that usually have a certain topography. The original Celtic versions were often violently adapted to the needs of the Catholic Church, so Celtic origins are usually obscured. I will mention three well-known rumors, which till nowadays in the consciousness of the people have kept only the reputation of the blanc troops and the reputation for the Bull Rock cave in the Moravian Karst. The third Celtic legend about the rainbow golden throne of the gods relates to Vyšehrad and has long since disappeared from human consciousness.

Big Blaník is an ancient Celtic deity, where druids sometimes built a significant nemethon, protected by double walls, around the year of 500 BC. Big Blaník lies near the well-known geological disorder Blanická brázda, which shows the once powerful geological activity in this region. The Blaník Massif is interwoven with a network of cracks, some of which reach deep depths, and once they have emerged a powerful healing spring that has been worshiped by druids as a source of divine power and health.

The legend relating to Blaník speaks of the fact that someday a powerful enemy troop was coming near to nemethon. Most of the original crew designed to protect nemethon fought somewhere far against the main enemy forces, and the defense remained less than a hundred defenders, most of whom had uninjured wounds from earlier battles. It was clear to the druids that a nemethon could not be defended against a strong enemy, so it was necessary to get time for the deep hiding of the sacred objects and the treasure dedicated to the gods. The High Priest asked the soldiers to fight for as long as the voice of the war horn sounded.

Each of the soldiers handed a cup of sacred water from the source and an unstoppable wound of error. Get upset, the diseases quickly recede, the wounds heal and stop pain. With the force of lions, the soldiers plunge into a much larger enemy. The fight is long and cruel, the sun sets and a small group of the last soldiers fights between the dead, the enemy shaken by the fury of the defenders retreats so fast that the retreat resembles an escape. From the wounds, the blood escapes and life escapes, the weapon falls out of hand, the dead are no longer alive, when the hollow sound of the horn sounds the soldiers back.

No one rises because the dead are governed by other laws. The full moon illuminates with the shimmering light of a battlefield full of shimmering shadows, flashes and sounds, and the voice of the corner calls for a return. The silent roaring of horses and the clinking of weapons and kits gradually fades into an open rock gate at the foot of a nemethon that closes silently behind the last shadow.

Morning propagation finds only a dwarfed battlefield with the dead bodies of the enemy, but from the defenders alone. Always at midnight on Samain Day, the rock gate opens, the army goes out and crickets trains on the former battlefield, then returns to the underground of Blaník and spends the long human year sleeping. Until the time of the army, the army will ride in full armor to defeat the hostile enemy.

For centuries, nemethon has long extinct, and many remains of the double walls, the sacred spring has disappeared, but the legend of the sleeping army in the interior of Blaník, passed from generation to generation, lives to date as a monument to ancient Celtic ancestors. The time of this legacy dates back to the end of the "Latino period" when the Celtic Battles were threatened by attacks by the Germanic Markoman.