Irish Celtic Cross Wooden Hand Carved Cross for Wall Decor, Religious Gift Cross

A Celtic Cross is a religious christian cross with a circle around the center where the vertical and horizontal lines intersect. It is essentially a Latin cross, with a circle enclosing the intersection of the upright and crossbar. At times it may be referred to as an “Irish Cross” or “Irish Celtic Cross”.   More commonly, they are known as a “Celtic Cross” as it is associated with all people of celtic heritage, not just Irish. The Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Galician, Manx, Breton and other regions of Anglican People that were influenced by early christianity and celtic heritage, such as Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, utilize the Celtic Cross.

The history of the Celtic Cross as a symbol of christianity, as we know it today, is wide with a variety of interpretations as to it’s original meaning. The first crosses associated with christianity were Latin Crosses which appeared around the 2nd century. The first Irish Cross or Celtic Cross used as a symbol for christianity by the Celts was not until the early middle ages around the 5th century. To understand the history of the celtic cross it may also be helpful to know a little about the people behind it, “The Celtic People”.  In earlier times, before christianity, the celtic people were already using symbols similar to the celtic cross to represent the moon and the sun. The moon was represented by a circle and the sun was represented by a circle with a cross on the inside of the circle.  This is what some refer to as the Sun Cross, or Ringed Cross as used by the ancient Druids. The difference between the earlier Sun Crosses and the later christian based designs is that the image of the celtic cross that we know of today has arms that extend outside of the circle, while earlier examples of the sun cross have the cross arms completely inside the circle.