Along with the Heavy Athletic Games and great music, there were several booths at the festival from several businesses in the Treasure Valley and several Scottish Clans from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Mom and I hit just about every booth at the festival and got a lot of information about some of the clans in the area along with a little lesson in Celtic astrology for me.
The first booth Mom and I hit as soon as we got into the festival was where you could get your Clan information printed out on an 11 x 14 form or on a sweatshirt or t-shirt. Mom and I pounced on the book of clans they provided and immediately started to look for our name, Nesbitt. We found it fairly quickly and read about where our clan came from along with its family crest. The young girl who was working there with her dad helped us, and we had no problem coughing up $21 for a copy of the Nesbitt family crest.
Several of the booths sold t-shirts and sweatshirts with Celtic or Scottish symbols on them. One booth had this very funny t-shirt that gave the "Top 10 Reasons The Scottish Wear Kilts" including "The Sheep won't hear the zipper!" Mom and I were rolling over with laughter after seeing that t-shirt and Scottish humor.
One of my favorite stops was the booth that sold Celtic astrology jewelry and t-shirts. I started to look for my Celtic sign to see if I could relate to it, and sure enough, several things stuck out that were me. My Celtic sign is Saille (April 16-May 14). Under Saille, the cosmos were born from the boughs of two willow trees, and it is the sign of the willow ruled by Cerridwen, the Goddess of the Moon. My name Dianne is named for Diana, the Roman Goddess of the Moon. There's got to be a connection there, I thought! People of the Willow are able to use their words, memories, and will effectively. That's me!
I bought a pewter necklace for $8.75 with Saille's symbol, the sea serpent on one side, and the Celtic symbol of my sign on the other. It was my big splurge of the day.
The clans who came to the Festival were the Donalds, the Lamonts, Campbell, and a few Irish or Celtic Clans. Mom and I spoke to the Campbell representative about Cousin Ed and his Campbells coming from Ireland, but he said the Irish and Scottish Campbells went from Ireland and Scotland and back many times. The Lamont clan showed us pictures of their trip to Scotland last month, and another clan had Viking handicrafts for sale.
Mom and I found our tartan colors in several books, but we were disappointed not to find a sample cloth of it anywhere. Clans are broken into Septs, and we couldn't find Nesbitt among the clans present. Most of the Nesbitts live in the Eastern USA.