The first person to write about being a "Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan" was Kym Lambert ní Dhoireann. She wrote this in the Spring, 1992 issue of "Harvest" Magazine. She says she got the idea for the name from Kathryn Price NicDhàna, who had also written about it. Margot Adler's 1979 book, "Drawing Down the Moon" has a chapter on "Pagan Reconstructionists", and Kathryn NicDhàna says this is probably where she got the idea, even though the book does not mention Celtic Reconstructionists, just other kinds.
Celtic Reconstructionists base their religion on what we know of the Ancient Celtic people's religion, and also on Celtic folklore. They focus on a particular Celtic culture, such as the Gaelic Welsh or Gaulish. Many CRs are scholars, or mystics, though many believe it's important to be both. CRs read lots of books and do things like meditation, prayer, and rituals. CRs believe that honesty and honorable behaviour is important.
Many CRs view each act of daily life as a form of ritual, and they accompany daily activities with traditional prayers, chants and songs from sources such as the Scottish Gaelic "Carmina Gadelica" or manuscript collections of ancient Irish or Welsh poetry.
Community rituals are usually based on traditional community celebrations found in folkloric collections by authors such as Marian McNeill, Kevin Danaher or John Gregorson Campbell. These celebrations often involve bonfires, dances, songs, divination and children's games. More formal or mystical CR rituals are often based on traditional techniques of interacting with the Otherworld, such as the act of making offerings of food, drink and art to the spirits of the land, ancestral spirits, and the Celtic deities. CR ritual structures are based on the ancient Celtic idea of the "Three Realms" - Land, Sea and Sky - with the fire of inspiration seen as a central, uniting force. Many CRs have altars and shrines to the spirits and deities they believe in. They may place these altars at outdoor, natural locations such as wells, streams, and special trees. Some CRs practice divination, such as the taking of omens from the shapes of clouds or the behaviour of birds and animals.
While Celtic Reconstructionism was the earliest name in use, and is still used the most often, other names for a Celtic Reconstructionist approach have also come into use, with varying degrees of success.
Some CR groups have looked to Celtic languages for a more culturally specific name for the tradition, or for their branch of the tradition. There are groups who now described their traditions as "Pàganachd" ("Paganism, Heathenism" in Scottish Gaelic) or the Irish version, "Págánacht". Some Gaelic-oriented groups use the two terms somewhat interchangeably,<ref name="Paganachd/Paganacht"></ref> or further modify these terms to describe the CR sub-tradition practiced by their particular group, such as "Pàganachd Allaidh" (“Wild Paganism”) or "Pàganachd Bhandia" (“Paganism of Goddesses”),
both used by Gaelic Reconstructionist groups on the East Coast of the US.
In the late 1990s, members of Imbas, a Celtic Reconstructionist group in Seattle, began promoting the name "Senistrognata", which they say means "the ancestral customs of the Celtic peoples" in reconstructed Old Celtic.
Celtic Reconstructionists rely on primary mythological texts, as well as surviving folklore, for the basis of their religious practices. No list can completely cover all the recommended works, but this is a small sample of sources used.
Hurricane Humberto (2007)
Hurricane Humberto formed and strengthened faster than any other tropical cyclone on record within 18 hours of landfall; developing on September 12, 2007 in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, the cyclone quickly strengthened and struck High Island, Texas, with winds of about 90 mph (150 km/h) early on September 13. It steadily weakened after moving ashore, and on September 14 it began dissipating over northwestern Georgia as it interacted with an approaching cold front. Humberto was the eighth named storm and third hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, and became the first hurricane to strike the United States since Hurricane Wilma of 2005. Damage was fairly light, estimated at about $50 million.
High Island, Texas
High Island is an unincorporated area in Galveston County, Texas. It is in the extreme eastern part of the county on Bolivar Peninsula, less than one mile from Chambers county and less than two miles from Jefferson county. As of 1990, 500 people resided in High Island.
In 2007, Hurricane Humberto made landfall near High Island.
Preparations for Hurricane Katrina
This article covers the details of the preparations for Hurricane Katrina, a major category 5 hurricane that destroyed parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Many people living in the area were caught off guard when Katrina strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane in one day and struck southern Florida on August 25. National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted the strengthening, however, and hurricane watches and warnings were properly given out nearly 36 and 24 hours, before hurricane conditions were felt in the area.
On August 27, after Katrina crossed southern Florida and strengthened to a Category 3 storm, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi two days before the hurricane made landfall.
On August 28, the National Weather Service in Slidell, Louisiana, issued a bulletin predicting "devastating" damage rivaling the intensity of Hurricane Camille. Necessary evacuations were issued for large areas of southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama.
On Sunday, August 28, Canadian National Railway (CN) stopped all rail traffic on its lines south of McComb, Mississippi, (lines owned by its subsidiary Illinois Central Railroad that extend into New Orleans), expectating damage from the hurricane. To help continue services after the storm passes, CN also issued an embargo with the Association of American Railroads against all deliveries to points south of Osyka, Mississippi. CSX Transportation also suspended service south of Montgomery, Alabama until further notice.
Amtrak, America's rail passenger carrier, announced that the southbound "City of New Orleans" passenger trains from Chicago, Illinois, from August 29 through September 3, would stop at Memphis, Tennessee, rather than their usual destination of New Orleans. The trains traveling northbound would also start at Memphis. The southbound "Crescent" from New York City, for the same period, stopped in Atlanta, Georgia, with the northbound trains starting in Atlanta as well. Amtrak's westbound "Sunset Limited" started in San Antonio, Texas, rather than its usual starting point of Orlando, Florida. Amtrak announced that no alternate transportation options would be made available into or out of the affected area.
The Waterford nuclear power plant was also shut down on Sunday, August 28, before Katrina's arrival.