ETNOASTRONOMÍA DEL CALENDARIO CÉLTICO EN GALICIA

This paper proposes a tour around the Christian shrines of Galicia in order to reveal the astronomical and calendrical beliefs previous to Christianity. It is intended to clarify this issue tracking the old legends that tell us how the founding saints and virgins were discovered thanks to the strange lights and mysterious phenomena that revealed the presence of the sacred in the dark early medieval times. Therefore twenty one shrines cases are discussed, where there are relevant alignments or geo-astronomical orientations along with a matching local folklore. In conclusion a particular model of a yearly calendaric computation is proposed, based on the determination of the Celtic midseason festivals (Imbolc, Belteine, Lugnasad and Samain), wich were established by observing quarantine periods, linked in turn with the lunar standstill cycle presumably monitored under the framework of a lunisolar calendar.