Celts (modern) - Celtic Nations

Celtic Nations

Six nations tend to be most associated with a modern Celtic identity, and are considered 'the Celtic nations'.

• Brittany
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales
• Isle of Man
• Cornwall

It is these 'Six Nations' that (alone) are considered Celtic by the Celtic League and the Celtic Congress amongst others. These organisations ascribe to a definition of Celticity based mainly upon language. In the aforementioned six regions, Celtic languages have survived and continue to be used to varying degrees in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany. There are also Celtic nomads: Irish Travellers called "Pavee" that speak a language called Shelta that is a creole of Irish Gaelic and other languages and Indigenous Highland Scottish Travellers called "Tinkers" who speak a language called Beurla Reagaird that is a acrolect of Scottish Gaelic.

A number of activists on behalf of other regions/nations have also sought recognition as modern Celts, reflecting the wide diffusion of ancient Celts across Europe. Of these, the most prominent are Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.

A Celtic language did not survive in Galicia / Northern Portugal (together Gallaecia), Asturias nor Cantabria, and as such they fall outside of the litmus test used by the Celtic League, and the Celtic Congress. Nevertheless, many organisations organised around Celticity consider that Galicia / Northern Portugal (Douro, Minho and Tras-os-Montes) and Asturias "can claim a Celtic cultural or historic heritage". These claims to Celticity are rooted in the long historical existence of Celts in these regions and ethnic connections to other Atlantic Celtic peoples (see Celtiberians, Celtici and Castro culture). In 2009, the Gallaic Revival Movement, sponsored by the Liga Celtiga Galaica (the Galician Celtic League), claimed to be reconstructing the Q-Celtic Gallaic language based on the Atebivota Dictionary and Old Celtic Dictionary compiled by Vincent F. Pintado.

Elements of Celtic music, dance, and folklore can be found within England (e.g. Yan Tan Tethera, Well dressing, Halloween), and the Cumbric language survived until the collapse of the Kingdom of Strathclyde in about 1018. England as a whole comprises many distinct regions, and some of these regions, such as Cumbria, Lancashire, Western Yorkshire and Devon, can claim more Celtic heritage than others. In 2009, it was claimed that revival of the Cumbric language was being attempted in the Cumberland area of England, however the idea that "Cumbric" was separate from Old Welsh has been criticised as stemming from the difficulty that many English historians have with accepting Old Welsh as the language once spoken all over England. It was suggested by Colin Lewis in Carn magazine that revivalists in the north of England use Modern Welsh to enable use of Welsh's existing rich cultural basis rather than having to "reinvent the wheel" in much the same way as has been done successfully in Derbyshire, another area where elements of Celtic culture survive. Previously, in Devon and the West Country, local Celtic language revivalists, similarly, finally suggested using Modern Cornish.

Similarly, in France outside of Brittany, in the Auvergne (province) chants are sung around bonfires remembering a Celtic god. There are also modern attempts to revive the polytheistic religion of Gauls.