Celtic Rainbow Gifts opened again in the same location for the seventh season. As most of you know, the building I lease along with the whole block from Main St. to Rodick St. is to be torn down at the end of the season to make way for a five-story Marriott Hotel. Originally that was supposed to happen last year and was postpone until this year. However, the project has been denied several times by the planning board because of the height, so who know if and when this will happen. Wishing you all a happy summer!

Cernunnos – Lord of Nature

Cernunnos was an important god of the Continental Celts, a lord of nature, animals, fruit, grain, and prosperity. He is portrayed as having a man’s body and the horns of a stag, his figure is seen in a squatting position and he wears or carries the sacred torc often associated with the Continental Celts. Although his name is known from only one inscription, the evidence for Cernunnos’ widespread worship is impressive; he is, for example, portrayed on the Gundestrup Cauldron. More than thirty other representations survive, dispersed from what is today Romania to Ireland. There are convincing traces of him in the literary traditions of both Wales and Ireland; and in later illuminated manuscripts, figures evoking Cernunnos are symbolic of devilish and anti-Christian forces. The Breton pseudo-saint Korneli, a patron of horned creatures, also shows traces of Cernunnos. In Gaulish representation he has a ram-headed servant. Julius Caesar identified him with the Roman god Dis Pater. Later commentators have sought to link him with Conall Cernach and the Hindu Pashupati, a ‘lord of beasts’. His posture has also been compared to that of Buddha, but it may only reflect the fact that Continental Celts squatted on the floor and did not use chairs.

Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James MacKillop
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