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Gaelic Football Tournament!
This year we're proud to announce the First Annual 7-a-Side Gaelic Footbal Tournament!
The Mason-Dixon GFC will be running the tournament throughout the day. Click here for a pdf flyer.
No other sport offers you the thrill of soccer, the tactics of rugby and the skill of basketball!!
Please check out their website for more details.
Update for 2010!
This year the Frederick Celtic Festival has signed up with the American Cancer Society. A portion of our proceeds will be donated by the St. Andrew's Society of Mid-Maryland, to help further research in the fight against cancer.
Update for 2010!
The 2010 Frederick Celtic Festival will be held on May 8, 2010.
Once again, we will be at the Frederick Fairgrounds, in downtown Frederick, Maryland.
Our Site will be updated with information on our entertainment and the program throughout the coming months.
Check back for more updates!!
2010's Honored Clan - Clan MacGregor
Every year we pick a clan from the 30 or more that join us at the Festival, helping you find out about your clan and tartan. We choose the Honored Clan based on a combination of criteria - original / best looking tent set-up, amount of information provided, hospitality, and Celtic heritage representation - to name a few.
This years Honored Clan is Clan MacGregor!
Motto: 'S Rioghal Mo Dhream - Royal is my Race.
Clan Gregor, or MacGregor, is one of the oldest and purely Celtic Scottish Clans. It claims descent from King Kenneth Alpin who united the Picts and the Scots around 850. The MacGregors take their motto "S' Rioghal Mo Dhream" or "My Race Is Royal" from Gregor, a descendant of King Alpin.
Established around Glen Orchy, Glen Lyon and Glen Strae, the "Children of the Mist" were a powerful clan for hundreds of years, holding steadfastly to the old Celtic clan rule of defending possessions by the sword.
When force didn't work, their powerful neighbors persuaded the government to outlaw the MacGregors and destroy them by "Fyre and Sword". For most of 170 years, 1602 to 1774, the government practiced genocide against the Clan. They were forbidden to own land or use the name MacGregor and a price was put on the head of all male MacGregors.After the lifting of the proscription in 1774 the MacGregors quickly returned to their rightful place in society. A great symbolic closing of the old wounds took place when Sir Evan MacGregor, the 19th Chief, led a band of his clansmen to guard the "Honors of Scotland" during the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822.
Sir Walter Scott was so taken by the gripping struggle of the MacGregors that he gave it wide exposure in his epic "Lady Of The Lake" and then greatly romanticized the life of Rob Roy MacGregor in a subsequent classic called simply "Rob Roy".
It is no wonder that MacGregors look back on their tempestuous history and declare "Macgregor, desp[ite them, shall flourish forever!"
The present Chief of the Clan Gregor in Scotland is Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, 7th Baronet of Lanrick and Balquidder, 24th Chief of Clan Gregor. Succeeded his father April 2003. The Clan Gregor Society accepted him as their Chief at the International Gathering in July 2003. The American Clan Gregor Society accepted him as our Chief at the Gathering in October 2003 and followed up at the Gathering in 2004.
More information available at the American Clan Gregor Society website.