Stones in Ireland align to the Spring Equinox This is the first half of our MONSTER show celebrating the Spring Equinox and Ostara! Be prepared for 4 super pieces of music, a fascinating piece about the Loughcrew Passage Tomb that shows that the Iron Age Celts regarded the Spring Equinox as significant, a wonderful Ostara piece by our resident bard, Chris Joliffe and as a super, special surprise - a listener submitted story! And this is only the first part! The next part of the show will be following hot on its heels! :) More resources over at our main Website at http://celticmythpodshow.com Running Order: Intro 0:40 News & Views 3:14 Into the Green - Spiral Dance 4:55 The Loughcrew Passage Tomb - Voices from the Dawn 11:06 Call of the Wildwoods - Brocc 25:23 Ostara's Hare by Chris Joliffe 31:59 Brighid's Flame - Kellianna 37:33 The Hero of Avalon - Zachary Hare 41:37 Avalon Is Risen - Leslie Fish 1:10:42 Promo - The Magical Faerie Festival 1:16:39 Thank you for donation - Birgir 1:19:04 We hope you enjoy it! Gary & Ruthie x x x It's always great to hear from you! Email garyandruth@celticmythpodshow.com, or call us on Speakpipe   Into The Green by Spiral Dance The Quickening Multi-award winning group Spiral Dance, based in Adelaide, has been playing rousing, high-energy music to enthusiastic audiences throughout Australia and beyond for over a decade. With a combination of haunting vocals, evocative fiddle, intoxicating guitar riffs and groovy accordion lines, underpinned with potent bass and dynamic percussion, the band presents an eclectic blend of traditional folk-rock with powerful self-penned songs and tunes. Enchanting melodies intertwine with mythical tales that are sure to captivate your soul, tease your mind and steal your heart, casting your spirit into the realms of magic and the mists of ancient time. We are privileged to bring you their moving track, Into the Green, which comes from the album, The Quickening. The album, The Quickening, with all of its songs about the Quickening of Life withing the Earth, won the Most Outstanding CD Release for 2006, in the South Australian Folk Awards. You can find out more about Spiral Dance on their website or on their Contributor Page.   The Loughcrew Passage Tomb by "Voices From The Dawn" Cairn H and the Hag of Beare (An Cailleach Bhéara) Sliabh na Caillíghe constitutes a Neolithic necropolis, a passage-tomb cemetery with some evidence of at least thirty tombs, the grandest concentration of such monuments in Ireland. Over the centuries scores of others may have been destroyed with no trace remaining. Cairn T (pictured above) can be seen in a Virtual Reality tour on the Voices from the Dawn website. This is the Cairn that is illuminated by the Sun at the time of the Spring Equinox. Equinox illumination at the end of the Tomb The Hag of Beare The folktales of the ancient Hag of Beare were the stories that greeted Conwell, John O’Donovan, and Jonathan Swift before him.  Other translations of "The Hag of Beare" can be found on Voices from the Dawn. The Hag's Chair The Hag's Chair (pictured above) has a deeply-incised cross carved into its seat was noted by Conwell as a nineteenth-century trigonometric mark, although others have claimed it to be an artifact of the monument’s use as a “Mass rock” during Penal times. Carvings on the front of the Hag's Chair You can visit the Voices of the Dawn website or follow them on Facebook. You can also find out more about the project, and Howard Goldbaum, on our Contributor Page.   Call of the Wildwoods by Brocc 13 Moons Brocc came into being over the summer of 2008 - a product of gales and rain in the woods and a badger who came to stay and has become our symbol. The songs we weave tell tales of myth and legend and the old beliefs of our lands and peoples. Our music is timeless, evocative of earlier, simpler times. The instruments reflect our love of forgotten timbres - we play English & Swedish bagpipes, woodwinds and recorders, the