Celtiberian warrior dancer with arms clad in large bull horns represented on ceramic found in Garray, Numancia. These ritual dances are related to the cult of the bull, those horns and those dances related to the learning and domination of the brave bull, strength and fertility.

The famous Warrior Vessel was found in Numantia and represents a combat between two Numantine warriors. In the image we see the duel with helmet, caetra, sword and spear. It is one of the few graphic representations of the 1st century Celtiberian panoplies.

The horse is a symbol of freedom, nobility, strength, courage, wealth and power. Representations of horses have been found in Numantine ceramics, fibulae, coins, funerary stelae ... Linked to Epona, the goddess of abundance and fertility. Related to the warrior elites and as a symbol of the ostentation of power, they are very present in Iberia in herding, hunting and funeral rites. Endowed with chthonic and psychopompic aspects, it is linked with divinity and the afterlife, as well as with rites of passage and initiation, with the appropriation of equine virtues, with the image of the deceased and later heroized warrior, where the horses sacrificed for accompany the warrior on his journey to the afterlife.

The horse is a symbol of freedom, nobility, strength, courage, wealth and power. Representations of horses have been found in Numantine ceramics, fibulae, coins, funerary stelae ... Linked to Epona, the goddess of abundance and fertility. Related to the warrior elites and as a symbol of the ostentation of power, they are very present in Iberia in herding, hunting and funeral rites. Endowed with chthonic and psychopompic aspects, it is linked with divinity and the afterlife, as well as with rites of passage and initiation, with the appropriation of equine virtues, with the image of the deceased and later heroized warrior, where the horses sacrificed for accompany the warrior on his journey to the afterlife.

he teseras of hospitality constitute an inviolable and sacred Celtiberian document, they referred to an institution as typically Indo-European as the hospirium, which were verbal with a Druidic ritual with witnesses and the gods as guarantors. The hospitality pacts (hospititum) were contracts, pacts sealed between people and between peoples of friendship and hospitality, even transmitted from generation to generation. These waitresses or pieces of iron or bronze had many different shapes, both geometric and zoomorphic.

The horse is a symbol of freedom, nobility, strength, courage, wealth and power. Representations of horses have been found in Numantine ceramics, fibulae, coins, funerary stelae ... Linked to Epona, the goddess of abundance and fertility. Related to the warrior elites and as a symbol of the ostentation of power, they are very present in Iberia in herding, hunting and funeral rites. Endowed with chthonic and psychopompic aspects, it is linked with divinity and the afterlife, as well as with rites of passage and initiation, with the appropriation of equine virtues, with the image of the deceased and later heroized warrior, where the horses sacrificed for accompany the warrior on his journey to the afterlife.

The wolf is a religious and social icon for the Iberians, related to the stars, both with the sun and the moon. It appears on shields, coins, sculptures, tombstones and ceramics such as those found in Alcudia in the Elche-Archena style. This Carnassier or butcher, is fierce and defiant, he is represented hunted or tamed by man or linked to the rite of his transit to the afterlife world.

Silio Italicus relates about the Celtiberians: “The Celts came united in name to the Iberians. For them it is an honor to fall in the fight, and a crime to incinerate his corpse. They believe that the dead will go to heaven with the gods if hungry vultures devour the lying body. " The vultures therefore help the soul of the Celtiberians fallen in battle in their transit to the afterlife.

It is an anthropomorphic figure, a kind of horse with human qualities.

Glass of Pepona de la Alcudia

Anthropomorphic figure with a tunic and extended wings together with small details of a vegetal type that appeared in the Iberian ceramics of La Alcudia (Elche). The feminine principle is visible in intimate union with the primal divinity, the Great Neolithic Goddess.

A psychopomp is a being that in Celtic mythology or religions led the souls of the deceased to the otherworld. These Celtiberian fish appeared on ceramic plates found in Numancia, symbolized water, and as guide animals carried souls to the afterlife.

In Céltica Hispania there were horned deities, it is possible that the image corresponds to that of the god Cernnunos with his deer horns appearing in a Numancia ceramic. Although it has also been interpreted as a zenith wolf with open jaws or as the stag beetle. What it seems is that it is a deification of the Horned Male, related to abundance and fertility.

Libero, cry of freedom !!! ... The Iberians were lovers of freedom, they did not accept a leader, only in times of war and for short periods of time. While their value and loyalty to their bosses and leaders was recorded by ancient writers. The Greeks admired their bravery and resistance, they fought without fear and did not retreat even with the lost battle.

The image of the bird with outstretched wings of the Elche ceramic from Acudía has a mystical character, linked to divinity is related to the Mediterranean goddesses and chronicles of the cycles of nature, life and death. In some contexts this image of the bird is related to the blessings of travel or as a guide in the transit journey of the soul to the underworld.

Adaptation of the war scene of an Iberian horseman on horseback that appeared in the ceramic vessels of Liria in Elche, decorated with paintings and epigraphs written in the Iberian-Levantine alphabet. At the bottom of the drawing we have incorporated the bundle of arrows. Whose text talks about Zaldi (horse in Iberian), who is wild, indomitable and brave, with a stately appearance, rebellious and ready for warlike violence.

February 27, 380, the emperor Theodosius abolished the religion and festival of the Sun Invictus by the famous edict of Thessalonica. Until then the Romans worshiped the Sun god during the Republic, and with greater prominence in the Imperial era, since the gradual entry of different religions of salvation of monotheistic tendency, such as Christianity and Mithrism, was giving greater weight to the power of the star king, the one who conquered the darkness ...

Emperor Aurelian made it official on December 25 as the day of the birth of the Undefeated Sun (the main divinity of the Roman pantheon at that time) back in the year 274 and later Juliano the Apostate would declare Helios (Greek equivalent) as the only divinity, and would try to prevent the spread of growing Christianity.

Finally, during a long process of syncretism, both the Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" held after the Winter Solstice, when daylight increased, as well as many other acts and celebrations were gradually reconverted. Paganism would come to an end, a new stage would begin with a victorious sun reborn in the arms of a Galilean.

An ancient Persian myth told us of the coming of an envoy from the Sun, Mithras, who, dressed with Phrygian, torch and dagger, will be worshiped by shepherds, and in a primordial cave he will redeem men through the sacrifice of a primeval bull. According to legend after being captured, he will carry it on his shoulders and kill him. The new world will be reborn after its ascension to heaven together with its resurrected dead beyond the stars ...

As often happens, the myth was lost in time until Rome rescued it back in the 1st century BC. assimilating him to the God Invictus, where after the Saturnalia every December 25, Mitra would be reborn victorious "natalis solis invicti" (death, resurrection and growth of the crops).

The light is reborn and returns, the end of the darkness of days is approaching. With the sowing and the field work completed, it is time to celebrate the coming of light. Let's light candles, decorate our homes with plants, get together with family and friends, exchange gifts, drink and eat, these are days of fun.

Rome dresses up with sacrifices in honor of Saturn and agrarian cults, there are no slaves or masters, no wars or executions, no sickles or hoes, just public banquets, joy, laughter, happiness, country delight and carnival, let's rejoice for a year more of this ancient pagan celebration !! The winter solstice is soon over, our undefeated Sun is returning soon. Happy Saturnalia!!