Ricky's Historical Tidbits Podcast

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Ancient Celtic Druids base their holidays on the wheel of the year.

The Celtic year was divided into 2 halves the light and the dark. Within The halves, there would be 4 fire festivals. Samhain was the name of the fire festival that marked the beginning of the dark half of the year.

During Samhain, it is said that the world of the gods and goddesses is made visible, and spirits from the otherworld return to earth. To keep these spirits happy the Celts would put offerings and sacrifices outside of the town for their enjoyment.

The people would wear skins and costumes of animals to confuse the spirits from knowing who was who in case they had a beef with someone.

Bonfires would be made and the shamanic druid priests would give psychic readings to the people.

Often during this time monsters and demonic spirits would come by and kidnap and kill people.

Phere was Phookah which is a shape-shifting creature typically rabbit-like or horse-like.

There was Lady Gyn who was a headless woman who chased people around with her trusty demonic black pig.

The Dullahan which you might recognize better as the headless horseman would carry his head and ride a black horse with deep red eyes. If you saw him that was a death omen.

Then There was the faery host which was a group of hunter fairy spirits who kidnapped people.

Generally, people feared the spirits, and for good reason. But as time went on people became enthralled with spirits, the occult, Gnosticism, Wicca, and so on.

In the Middle Ages Dumb supper came about where people would leave all the doors and windows open for the spirits to come in and take part in the feast, children would play games to entertain the spirits and the family would update the invisible visitors on how life was

Mumming came out of that, which was caroling door to door on Samhain to entertain the spirits who were participating in dumb supper. In return, cakes would be given to those carolers.

Put it all together and you can see where we get our modern secular "holiday" Halloween.

I got a great show for you today I'll tell you about the Druids of California, I'll give you the stories of Dyer Lane and its true history, We'll look into the Esoteric Fraternity up in Applegate and check in on the Bohemian Grove near San Francisco and then we'll travel all the way up to Seattle for a mass murder story. Plus some other stuff. Sit back relax and get ready to learn.

Every time I have driven around or through Placerville there's a strange pillar in the middle of the street with what looks to be a flame on the top.

One day while driving by, I noticed on the plaque that it says Druids of California.

I don't know about you but I had never heard of a druid but it sounded kinda weird. I didn't think much about it after that but then I heard a preacher mention druids one day and I remembered that pillar. I still never looked into it, I didn't care all that much. Just a passing curiosity, you know. I bet at least one of you has been curious if you have seen it, and those that haven't are at least slightly intrigued now that I mentioned it.

So, I spent a few hours researching all I could for you, and here's the story.

The pillar is a memorial to a guy who is the man who successfully brought druidism to the state of California. His name was Frederick Sieg. A German who immigrated to the States and lived in St. Louis where he was introduced to the ideas of druidism.

He eventually caught gold fever and moved to California, he slaved away as a miner for a little bit until he settled over in Hangtown "Placerville".

In Placerville, he made it his mission to bring The United Ancient Druid Order to fruition in California. Two others had tried, once in Sacramento and once in San Francisco but there wasn't much interest, and Sacramento in particular had a big fire that spread the potential members in all directions.

Frederick did well and got a whole, 2 people on board and soon more until there was enough demand that he made 2 more "groves" which is the druid’s name for their meeting place, One in Coloma and another in San Francisco.

Now, The pillar monument was installed back in 1926, thirty-eight years after Frederick's death.

On the Pillar, there is a druidic emblem which in their words "shows a flaming pyre surmounted by a crossed spear and a long-handled sickle. Oaks, Mistletoe, Daffodil, and the all-seeing eye in the triangle.

So that answers what the heck that thing is, but it begs the question...

What is a druid?

Well, that depends on 10 billion different things. Druidism isn't like other religions where they all believe the same general thing with some differences within denominations based on theology. Druids are like snowflakes, no two are alike,

There are even differences in whether it’s a ...

A short story of one of the founding fathers and his switch from tea to coffee in the midst of the revolution. 

In this episode I cover an old rural Chinatown, Pirates in Delaware, oyster pirates in Maryland, a Viking statue in North Dakota, a cool naval battle from the war of 1812 over in Ohio, how Native Americans came to the modern day USA while covering some history on a particular tribe in Oregon and I also touch on Juneteenth which began in Texas.  

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The Statue of liberty is not in New York, the ugly laws led to something unrecognizable and there's an old hotel on the top of mountain in New Hampshire. All these historical tidbits and more in this episode of Ricky's Historical Tidbits. 

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5 tidbits from across the United states. Applets and Cotlets in Washington, Wakarusa war in Kansas, the life story of Mr. Mowry in Arizona, the Seminole wars in Florida and the Pepperell family in Maine.  

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