Will Millar: Ghosts of Old Ireland

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Will Millar, "The Last Farewell," nd

oil on board, 20" x 16"

Meet Will Millar On Saturday October 28th !1:30 am - 3:30 pm. He will playing and sing some tunes from his former Irish Rover days.

Will Millar, former leader of The Irish Rovers has now returned to his first creative love of painting. In this exhibition he is a voyager into the Ireland of his youth, portraying the country in the 1950's, before glass supermarkets and traffic jams clogged up small villages.

This exhibition opens just in time for Halloween, the origins of which come from Ireland over 2000 years ago. The Samhain Festival took place on the night of October 31. The Celts, who occupied the land which is now called Ireland, celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Samhain is an old celtic word pronounce "Sow in".

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.