Chiyoko Sudo
Ireland is one of my favorite countries. The land is full of green as its symbol color shows. Ireland is written in Japanese as “愛蘭土” which means “Land of Love and Flowers”. That sounds nice. And their Celtic culture attracted me a lot. So I traveled around Ireland in May 2007.
I saw stone monuments called High Cross several times. Mixed form of cross and circle. Its circle means eternity and the design of High Cross shows the fusion of the sun worship as one of the nature worship and Christianity which was preached by St. Patrick. That reminded me the fusion of Japanese Shinto and Buddhism.
Celtic rope pattern shows eternity because there is no beginning and end, meaning everlasting spirit after death and its spiritual progress. Halloween is said to be originated from the ancient Celtic tradition. Finishing harvest at the end of October and winter is coming soon, during that period people in this world and their relatives in the other world can interact. That idea is like “盂蘭盆” (Urabon , the Bon Festival) which is Buddhism custom and spread all over Japan.
About 50 km north of Dublin there are many ancient tombs which were built thousands years ago around the Boyne Valley along the River Boyne. Among them Newgrange is enormous, the diameter of that round tomb is about 80m and it was constructed to make the sun light coming in during the winter solstice. Newgrange means “The Cave of the Sun”.
I also saw the gigantic stone tomb, Poulnabrone Dolmen, meaning “The Giant’s Table” in the Burren region. That reminded me “石舞台” (Tomb Ishi-butai , the Stone Stage)in Asuka region in Nara Prefecture. I also found the stone statue like the Asuka’s “猿石” (Saru-ishi, Monkey Stone).
After traveling around Ireland, I got much more interested in the megalithic culture and Celtic culture in Ireland.
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